J-D

is

AN
JU

MIF

SIR

THO

/tf.

GLMlrGEQRG

GIOVANNI PICO BELLA MIRANDOLA.

*#* Five hundred copies of this Edition are printed.

GIOVANNI PICO DELLA MIRANDOLA

HIS LIFE BY HIS

NEPHEW GIOVANNI

FRANCESCO PICO:
ALSO THREE OF HIS LETTERS;
HIS

INTERPRE

TATION OF PSALM

XVI.

HIS

TWELVE RULES

OF A CHRISTIAN LIFE; HIS TWELVE

POINTS OF A PERFECT LOVER;

AND

HIS

DEPRECATORY
GOD.

HYMN TO

TRANSLATED FROM THE LATIN BY

SIR

THOMAS MORE.

EDITED WITH INTRODUCTION AND NOTES

BY

J.

M. RIGG, ESQ.,

OF LINCOLN'S INN, BARRISTER-AT-LAW.

LONDON
PUBLISHED BY
M"DCCCXC.

DAVID NUTT

IN

THE STRAND.

CHISWICK PRESS:

c. WHITTINGHAM AND co., TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE, LONDON.

INTRODUCTION.
'IOVANNI PICO

BELLA MIRANis

DOLA,

"

the Phoenix of the wits,"

one of those writers whose personality will always count for a great deal more
than their works.

His extreme, almost

versatility, his

feminine beauty, high rank, and chival

rous character, his
insatiable thirst for

immense energy and

knowledge, his passion for theorizing, his rare combination of intellectual hardihood with genuine
devoutness of
spirit, his

premature death, make

his

extraordinary precocity, and his up a personality so engaging that

name at any rate, and the record of his brief life, must always excite the interest and enlist the sympathy of mankind, though none but those, few in any genera
tion,

who

rature and philosophy,

spirit

love to loiter curiously in the bypaths of lite will ever care to follow his eager

through the labyrinths of recondite speculation which it once thridded with such high and generous hope.

For

us,

indeed,

of the latter end of the nineteenth

century, trained in the exact methods, guided steady light of modern philosophy and criticism,

by the it is no

easy matter to enter sympathetically into the thoughts of

men who

lived while as yet these

were

not,

men who

spent their strength in errant efforts, in blind gropings in the dark, on abortive half-solutions or no-solutions of

problems too

difficult for

them, mere ignes fatui,

it

would

seem, or at best

mere

brilliant

meteor

stars illuminating

the intellectual firmament with a transitory trail of light, and then vanishing to leave the darkness more visible, yet

without whose mistakes and failures and apparently futile waste of power philosophy and criticism would not have

come

into being.

such wandering meteoric apparitions not the least brilliant was Pico della Mirandola. Born in 1463,

Among

he grew

to

manhood

in

time to witness and participate in

;

the effectual revival of

earliest bias

remained to
felt

Greek learning in Italy yet his was scholastic, and a schoolman in grain he the day of his death. How strongly he had

the influence of the schoolmen,

to follow the humanistic

how

little

disposed he

was

hue and cry of indiscriminate condemnation, may be judged from the eloquent apology for them which, in the shape of a letter to his friend
1485. It was the fashion to stigmatize the schoolmen as barbarians because they knew no Greek and could not write classical Latin.

Ermolao Barbaro, he published

in

That was the head and front of their offending in the eyes of men who had no idea of a better method of philosophizing than theirs, nor indeed any interest in philosophy, mere rhetoricians, grammarians, and pedagogues, while at any rate the schoolmen, however rude their style, were serious
thinkers,

science

who in grappling human and divine

"

with the deepest problems of displaced the rarest patience,

sagacity, subtlety

and ingenuity.

Such

is

the gist of Pico's

barbarians," in urging which he plea on behalf of the exhausts the resources of rhetoric, and the ingenuity of
vi

the advocate

nor

is

there reason to doubt that

it

repre

embers of a very genuine enthusiasm. That challenge, also, which he issued at Rome, and in
sents at least the

every university

in Italy in the

winter of 1486-7,

summon

ing as if by clarion call every intellectual knight-errant in the peninsula to try conclusions with him in public dispu tation in the eternal city after the feast of Epiphany, does
it

not recall the celebrated exploit of Duns Scotus at Paris, when, according to the tradition, he won the title

by refuting two hundred objections to the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin
of Doctor Subtilis

day ? Only, as befitted a great lord of Italy," Pico's tournament is to be on a grander scale. Duns had but one thesis to defend Pico offers to main

Mary

in a single

"

tain nine hundred,

and

lest

poverty should reduce the

offers to

pay their travelling Moreover, to Duns, Aquinas, and other of the expenses. schoolmen, Pico is beholden for not a few of his theses of the rest, some are drawn direct from Plato, others from
;

number of

his antagonists

he

Neo- Pythagorean, Neo- Platonic and syncretist writers, while a certain number appear to be original. Pico, how the church smelt ever, was not so fortunate as Duns heresy in his propositions, and Pope Innocent VIII., though he had at first authorised, was induced to pro
:

hibit their discussion.

Thirteen were

(Bull dated 4th August, 1487). selected for examination by a special

commission and were pronounced heretical. Pico, how to its far from decision, wrote in hot ever, so bowing
haste an elaborate "Apologia" or defence of his ortho doxy, which, had it not been more ingenious than
conclusive, might perhaps have been accepted it only brought him into further trouble.
;

as

it

was,

This Apology

"

elucubrated," as he
vii

"
tells,

properante

stilo" in

twenty nights, Pico dedicated to Lorenzo de' " Medici, modestly describing it as exiguum sane munus, sed fidei meae, sed observantiae profecto in omne tempus

" a trifling gift erga te maxime non leve testimonium," indeed, but as far as possible from being a slight token of my loyalty, nay, of my devotion to you." Hasty

though

its

composition was,

it

certainly displays

no lack

of either ingenuity, subtlety, acuteness, learning, or style. Evidently written out of a full mind, it represents Pico's

mature judgment upon the abstruse topics which it handles, and is a veritable masterpiece of scholastic argu
After a brief prologue detailing the circum stances which gave occasion to the work Pico proceeds to
mentation.
discuss seriatim the thirteen "damnatae conclusiones," and the several objections which had been made to them. The tone throughout is severe and dry and singularly
free

from heat or asperity.

less.

Some of the
when

theses are treated

at considerable length, others dismissed in a

page or two,
its

or even
sition is

Altogether, borne in mind, the treatise appears

theses

the rapidity of

compo
a

little less

prodigy.

The

obnoxious

were as follows:

(i)

That

Christ did not truly and in real presence, but only quoad effectum, descend into hell (2) that a mortal sin of
;

not deserving of eternal but only of temporal punishment (3) that neither the cross of Christ, nor any image, ought to be adored in the way of
finite

duration

is

worship; (4) that God cannot assume a nature of any kind whatsoever, but only a rational nature (5) that no
;

science affords a better assurance of the divinity of Christ than magical and cabalistic science (6) that assuming
;

the truth of the ordinary doctrine that God can take upon himself the nature of any creature whatsoever, it is posviii

sible for the

be present on the altar with out the conversion of the substance of the bread or the

body of Christ
"

to

paneity ;" (7) that it is more rational to believe that Origen is saved than that he is damned (8)
annihilation of
;

that as no one's opinions are just such as he wills them to be, so no one's beliefs are just such as he wills them to be
;

of subject and accident may (9) that the inseparability be maintained consistently with the doctrine of transubstantiation; (10) that the

words "hoc

est

corpus" pro

nounced during the consecration of the bread are to be " as a mere recital) and not taken " materialiter (i.e.,
"significative" (i.e., as denoting an actual fact); (n) that the miracles of Christ are a most certain proof of his
divinity,

his

by reason not of the works themselves, but of manner of doing them (12) that it is more improper
;

to say of

God

that he
it

is

intelligent, or intellect,

than of
soul

an angel that

is

a rational soul; (13) that the

knows nothing
It is

in act

and

distinctly but

itself.

undeniable that some of these propositions smack somewhat rankly of heresy, and Pico's ingenuity is taxed
to the uttermost to give

them even a semblance of con-

The following, gruity with the doctrines of the Church. however, is the gist of his defence. Christ, he argues, did
actually descend into hell, but only in spirit, not in bodily presence eternal punishment is inflicted on the finally
;

impenitent sinner not for his sins done in the flesh, which are finite, but for his impenitence, which is necessarily
infinite
;

the cross

is

not in and for

that St.

itself,

be adored, but only as a symbol, for which he cites Scotus, admitting

to

The thesis that God against him. cannot take upon himself a nature of any kind whatso ever, but only a rational nature, must be understood
Thomas
is

without prejudice to the omnipotence of God, which

ix

is

not in question

cannot assume the nature of any irrational creature, because by the very act of so doing he necessarily raises it to himself, endows it with a rational
;

God

no science gives us better assur ance of the divinity of Christ than magical and cabalistic science referred to such sciences only as do not rest on
nature.
thesis that

The

revelation,

and among them

to the science of natural

magic, which treats of the virtues and activities of natural agents and their relations inter se, and that branch only
of cabalistic science which
of celestial bodies
;

is

concerned with the virtues

all

which of

natural sciences furnish

the

most convincing proof of the divinity of Christ, because they show that his miracles could not have been
performed by natural agencies. The sixth thesis must not be understood as if Pico maintained that the bread was
not converted into the body of Christ, but only that it is possible that the bread and the body may be mysteriously
linked together without the one being converted into the other, which would be quite consistent with the words of
St. Paul,
i

Cor. x. 16

"
:

The bread which we break

"

is it

communion of the body of Christ ? if interpreted figuratively. With regard to the salvation of Origen, Pico
not the

plunges with evident zest into the old controversy as to

the authenticity of the heretical passages in that writer's works, and urges that his damnation can at most be no

more than a pious

that belief
is

opinion.

In justification of the position

not a mere matter of will he cites the

authority of Aristotle and St. Augustine, adding a brief summary of the evidences of the Christian faith, to wit,

prophecy, the harmony of the Scriptures, the authority of their authors, the reasonableness of their contents, the

unreasonableness of their contents, the unreasonableness

of particular heresies, the stability of the

Church, the

miracles.

As

to transubstantiation, Pico professes himself

to hold the doctrine of the Church, merely

the pious opinion that the real existence and essence

Thomist
is

distinction

adding thereto between

consistent with the theory

that the bread itself remains in spite of the transmutation of its substance, and thus with the doctrine of the insepa

words " hoc est corpus," it appears from their context and their place in the office that they are not to be taken literally, for the
rability of subject

and accident

as for the

priest,

when

in consecrating the

bread he says,

"

Take,

does not suit the action to the word by offering the bread to the communicants, but takes it himself, and so when in consecrating the wine he says, "qui pro vobis et
eat/'

pro multis effundetur," words were to be taken

it is

not to be supposed, as
it

if

the

literally

must be supposed, that

he means that the blood of Christ actually will be shed, or that he does not mean to claim the benefit of it for
himself as well as the congregation, and the ''many. That the value of Christ's miracles as evidences of his
divinity
lies
1

'

rather

in

the

way

in

which they were

:

wrought than in the works themselves, is supported by Christ's own words in St. John xiv. 12 "Verily, verily, I He that believeth on unto the works that me, you, say
and greater works than these shall " which are quite go to my Father inconsistent with the idea that the works are themselves
I

do

shall
;

he do also
I

he do

because

evidence of his divinity.

to

In support of the proposition that intellect or intelligence cannot properly be ascribed

God, Pico invokes the authority of Dionysius the Areopagite, who holds the same doctrine, but does not on that account deny to God an altogether superior
even farther removed from angelic
is

faculty of cognition,
intelligence than that

from

human
xi

reason.

The last

pro-

position, viz.,

that the soul

knows nothing

in act

and

distinctly but itself, being extremely subtle and profound, Pico forbears to enlarge upon it, pointing out, however,

that

it

has the authority of St. Augustine in

is

its

favour.

The

reference

to the

De

Trinitate, x. I4.
it

The

doctrine
of the

itself is

of peculiar interest, for in Cartesian philosophy.

lay the

germ

Pico concludes the "Apologia" with an eloquent appeal to his critics to judge him fairly, which was so little heeded
that

some

of

them saw

fit

to
it

impugn

its

good

faith,

and

raised such a clamour about

that Pico,

who

in the

mean

time had gone to France, was peremptorily recalled to Rome by the Pope. He complied, but through the in
fluence of Lorenzo
dictine

was permitted
Meanwhile

to reside in the

Bene

monastery

at Fiesole, while the

new charge was

under

Bishop of Ussel, published (1489) an elaborate examination of the " Apologia," nor did Pico hear the last of the affair until
investigation.

Garsias,

shortly before his death,

when Alexander

VI.,

by a

Bull

June, 1493, acquitted him of heresy and assured him of immunity from further annoyance.

dated

i8th

An
1

oration

on man and

his place in

nature

with

which Pico had designed to introduce his theses to the

Utrum emin
aeris sit vis vivendi, reminiscendi, volendi, cogitandi,

sciendi, judicandi;

an

ignis,

an

cerebri,

an sanguinis, an atomorum, an
haec efficere valeat, dubita-

praeter usitata quatuor

elementa quinti nescio cujus corporis, an ipsius

vel

carnis nostrae

compago
:

temperamentum

verunt homines
se

et alius hoc, alius aliud affirmare

conatus

est.

Vivere

tamen

et

meminisse, et intelligere, et

velle, et cogitare, et scire, et

:

judicare quis dubitet ? Quandoquidem etiam si dubitat, vivit si dubitat unde dubitet, meminit ; si dubitat, dubitare se intelligit ; si dubitat, certus esse vult; si dubitat, cogitat; si dubitat, scit se nescire;
dubitat, judicat non se temere consentire oportere. Quisquis igitur aliunde dubitat, de his omnibus dubitare non debet quae si non essent de ulla re dubitare non posset.
si
:

xii

learned audience which he had hoped to gather about him to listen to the discussion was not published until
the familiar one of the dig nity of man as the only terrestrial creature endowed with free will, and thus capable of developing into an angel
after his death.
is

The theme

and even becoming one with God, or declining into a brute or even a vegetable. On this Pico descants at

some length and with much eloquence, and a great Schoolman and Neo-Platonist, display of erudition Cabalist and Pythagorean, Moses and Plato, Job,
in his

Seneca, Cicero, and the Peripatetics jostling one another With Pico, pages in the most bizarre fashion.
is

as with Dante, theology and the true end of man

is

the queen of the sciences, so to purify the soul by the

moral practice of virtue and the study of philosophy and natural as that it may be capable of the knowledge

His own theological speculations are contained in three works, viz. (i) a commentary

and the love of God.

on the
first

twenty-six verses

of the

first

chapter of

" Genesis, published in 1489, under the title of Heptaplus," and dedicated to Lorenzo de' Medici (2) an
;

essay towards the reconcilation of Plato and Aristotle, " entitled De Ente et Uno," published in 1491 (3) a
;

Canzone dello Amore Celeste e Divino," the date of which has not been precisely fixed. This curious trilogy is a signal example of the insane extravagances into which an acute and subtle intellect may be led by philosophical and theological arriere Pico's problem is essentially the same with that penste. on which the most powerful and ingenious minds of the Middle Ages had spent their strength in vain, to wit
Benivieni's

commentary on Girolamo

"

how

to

reconcile

theology and philosophy.

xiii

The

dif-

ference

is

that,

whereas the older thinkers had but

little

knowledge of any other philosopher than Aristotle, and knew him but imperfectly, Pico in the full tide of the
renaissance has to grapple with the gigantic task of recon ciling Catholic doctrine not merely with Aristotle, but

with Plato, the Neo-Platonists, Neo-Pythagoreans, the pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, the Orphic and Her
metic theosophies, and indeed with whatever of recondite, obscure, and mysterious in that kind the Pagan world

what might be ex the wildest possible jumble of incompatible pected which not even the most dexterous legerdemain ideas,
had given
birth to.
result
is

The

can twist into the remotest semblance of congruity. In the dedicatory letter prefixed to the " Heptaplus

"

Pico explains to Lorenzo the scheme of the work, and the motives which induced him to undertake it. Besides
the inestimable advantage which he derived from being the immediate recipient of divine revelation, Moses, it

Was he appears, was the greatest of all philosophers. not versed in all the science of the Egyptians, and was not Egypt the source whence the Greeks drew their
inspiration
?

Was
?

Mw<r?f ATTXI'WV
least of the

not Plato rightly called by Numenius 1 True it is that Moses has not the

appearance of a philosopher, but even in the account of the creation seems only to be telling a very
plain

and simple story, but that must not be allowed to Doubtless he veiled a profound detract from his claims.
of simplicity, and spoke in enigmas, or allegories, even as Plato and Jesus Christ were wont to do, in order that they might not be
this

meaning under

superficial

show

Numenius

of

Apameia
in the

in Syria, a

syncretistic philosopher,

sup

posed to have lived

age of the Antonines.

iii.

For the phrase see

Mullach, Frag. Phil. Grac.

167.

xiv

understood except by those to understand mysteries.

In
all
;

whom

it

was given

to

true

wisdom there should be an element of

mystery it would not be right that everyone should be able to understand it. The task of interpreting the Mosaic
account of the creation has been taken
of writers,
in

hand by a host

who have

struggled mightily with three car

it

dinal difficulties, which,

all failed

to surmount.

would seem, they have one and These difficulties are (i) to avoid
;

attributing to
(2) to

make

Moses commonplace or inadequate ideas the interpretation consecutive and consistent

;

from beginning to end

(3) to bring

him

into

harmony

with subsequent thinkers. Where his predecessors have failed Pico hopes to succeed. In the interpretation is worthy of the proem. threefold division of the Tabernacle Pico finds a type of
the three spheres
angelic or intelligible, celestial, and which, with man, the microcosm, make up the
difficulty in

The

sublunary universe

and thus has no

understanding
Christ opened

why
a

the veil of the

for

Temple was

rent

when

way

man

into the super-celestial sphere.

all

These
and are

four worlds are

one, not only because

all

have the

same

first

principle

and the same

final

cause,

linked together by certain general harmonies and affinities, but also because whatever is found in the sublunary

sphere has its counterpart in the other two, but of a Thus to terrestrial fire nobler character (meliore nota).
corresponds in the celestial sphere the sun
celestial,
;

in the super-

on earth

Similarly, what is water seraphic intelligence. is in the heavens the moon, and in the super-

celestial region

" cherubic intelligence. The elementary fire burns, the celestial vivifies, the super-celestial loves." What cherubic intelligence does Pico forgets to say but
;

xv

fire

and water being opposed,

the
intelligible

it

is

clear that

it

ought

to hate.

In

orders of angels,
self
;

unmoved
its

world God, surrounded by nine Himself, draws all to Him

to

whom

in the celestial

world corresponds the

;

nine revolving spheres in the matter with its three elementary forms, earth, water, and fire, the three orders of vegetable
stable

empyrean with

sublunary world the

herbs,

first

life,

plants,

and

trees,

and the three

sorts

of
to

sensual souls/' zoophytic, brutish, human, gether "nine spheres of corruptible forms."

"

making
;

Man, the microcosm, unites all three spheres having a body mixed of the elements, a vegetal soul, and the
spirit, which holds of the an and sphere, angelic intellect, in virtue of which he is the very image of God. Now it is true that Moses in his account of the creation appears to ignore all this, but it is not for us on that account to impute to him ignorance of it. On the contrary, we must

senses of the brute, reason or

celestial

suppose that his cosmogony is equally true of each of the four worlds which make up the universe, and must accord
a fourfold interpretation. fifth chapter will be rendered necessary by the difference between the four
ingly give
it

worlds, and a sixth by their affinities

and community.

have thus six chapters corresponding with the six of creation. seventh is devoted to expounding the days meaning of the Sabbath rest and to indicate this sevenfold

We

division of the

work Pico entitles it " Heptaplus." The plural method of interpreting Scripture, it must be observed, was by no means peculiar to Pico, indeed was in common use in his day. As a rule, however,
commentators were content with three senses, which they distinguished as mystical, anagogical, and allegorical. To
xvi

mind this, no doubt, seemed a pitiful em what was the ground of the triple method ? For piricism. Why these three senses and no more ? He scorned such grovelling economy and rule of thumb, and determined to
Pico's philosophic

place the interpretation of the Mosaic cosmogony once for all on a firm and philosophic basis. Digging, accordingly,

deep

into the nature of things for the root, as

he

calls

it,

of

he comes upon the Ptolemaic system with its central earth surrounded by its nine concentric revolving
his exegesis,

spheres, the nearest that of the moon, the most remote that of the fixed stars, in the interspace the solar and other

planetary spheres, and beyond all the stable empyrean. To this he joins the Platonic theory of an intelligible world

behind the phenomenal, and the Christian idea of heaven, borrows from the pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite his nine orders of angels to correspond with the nine celestial
spheres, discerns in the stable empyrean the type of the immutability of God, in matter as the promise and
all things, the evidence of His infinite power and fulness, throws in the Neo-Platonic doctrine of the microcosm and macrocosm, and lo the work is done, and a cosmology constructed, which to elicit from Genesis may well demand a sevenfold method of interpretation. The

potency of

minor details of

this curious mosaic, to wit, the correspon

dence between the nine spheres of corruptible forms and the nine planets, between seraphic intelligence and the
sun,

between cherubic intelligence and the moon, seem, for what they are worth, to be all Pico's own. Having thus found, as he thinks, a philosophic basis
method, Pico proceeds to apply
it

for his exegetical

to

the Mosaic text with the utmost rigour and vigour. It would be tedious to follow him through all the minutiae
of his elaborate and extraordinary interpretation.
xvii

A
c

few

examples of his art

will

amply

suffice

and we cannot do

better than begin at the beginning.

What,

then,

did

In the beginning"? The solution of this weighty problem Pico plainly regards as his greatest triumph, and accordingly reserves it for the closing

Moses mean by

"

with a mighty flourish of These pregnant words, "In the beginning," trumpets. contain, it appears, the following mystic sentence: "Pater
chapter,

when he

introduces

it

in Filio et

creavit

per Filium, principium et finem, sive quietem, caput, ignem, et fundamentum magni hominis

from them by various dexterous permutations and combinations of the letters which make up their Hebrew equivalent. The key to
fcedere bono,"

which

is

elicited

the interpretation of the sentence the microcosm.

is

found

in the idea of

Man
may
is

being the microcosm, the macrocosm, or universe, be called " magnus homo/' whose " caput," or head,

the supercelestial or intelligible world, while his "ignis," fire, or heart, is the celestial world or empyrean, and his

fundamentum," or base, the sublunary sphere, all which are bound together "fcedere bono," by ties of kinship and
congruity.
first

"

In plain English, then, the initial words of the " The chapter of Genesis mean, according to Pico
:

Father

in the

Son, and by the Son, who

rest,

and the end, or

the beginning created the head, the heart, and the

is

lower parts of the great man fitly joined together and thus contain an implicit prophecy of the Christian dis
;

"

pensation.

After this splendid tour de force, everything else in Pico's

exposition will seem tame and trivial. may observe, that four a he finds in the however, being square number,
fourth

We

day an adumbration of the fulness of time in which Christ came to earth in the sun, moon, and stars types of
;

xviii

His Church, and His Apostles; in the waters under the firmament, which on the third day were gathered to
Christ,

gether unto one place, a type of the Gentiles in the earth, a type of the Israelites and in the fact that before
;

the earth

the creation of the sun the waters produced nothing, and little that was good, while after the sun had

shone upon them they became fruitful abundantly of moving creatures, birds, and fishes, a prophecy of the
revolution wrought by Christianity were not the Apostles fishers of men ? and a plain, unmistakable
spiritual

proof that his exposition is no mere fancy, but solid truth. It is absurd to criticize such folly seriously, but it
while to note in passing that Christ being according to Christian theology co-eternal with the Father, the creation of the sun serves but ill as a type of His
advent.
Pico, however,
tion,
is

may be worth

so

little

that he

finds another type

disturbed by this considera of Christ in another

created object to wit, the firmament which, while separating the waters above it from those below, never
theless unites

and

as every mean unites its extremes, thus enables the former to fecundate the latter, as

them

At

Christ enables the divine grace to descend upon man. the same time, however, he is careful to affirm the
is

orthodox position that Christ

creature.

the

first

begotten of every

Such are some of the meanings which Pico finds in the Mosaic text when interpreting it of the creation of the The same terms intelligible or super-celestial sphere.
have, of course, quite different imports when applied to the creation of the other spheres. Thus, in relation to
the sublunary sphere, " heaven means efficient cause, " " " " the earth and the waters on the face of matter,
"

xix

which
matter.

the

Spirit

of

God moved,

the

accidents

of

But the reader has probably had already

of these absurdities, which, however,

far too

much
allow

when due

ance has been made for the differences of the times, are perhaps hardly grosser than some of the ingenious
attempts by which more recent writers have sought to reconcile Genesis with modern science.
It is time,
"

De Ente

et

however, to take a glance at the treatise Uno." This little tractate purports to be

an essay towards the reconciliation of Plato and Aristotle an essentially hopeless undertaking, on which Poryhyry

had long before spent

his strength for nought.

We

may

therefore spare ourselves the trouble of even asking how The interest of the treatise con far Pico is successful.
sists in

the insight which

it

affords into Pico's

own views
It

of the nature of
is,

God and His

relation to the world.

a chapter, and by no means an unimportant chapter, in the long dialectic on the nature of universals and their relation to particulars, which formed the staple
in fact,

All cultivated people have heard of mediaeval thought. of this great debate, but few have any clear idea of the
issues involved in
it,

and why so many subtle and inae-

nious thinkers spent their best energies upon it. Nay, it is sometimes contemptuously dismissed by those who

know better as mere piece of frivolous logomachy. In truth, however, this apparently barren controversy was big with the most momentous of all the problems
should
with which the
"

Utrum

sit

human mind can concern itself Deus "- whether God exist? second,

first,

if

He

exist, in

what way His relation to the universe is to be understood whether in the way of a transcendent cause or an immanent principle, or in both ways at once ? xx

from Plato and

it

Saturated as mediaeval theology was with ideas derived Aristotle, and but imperfectly understood,

was inevitable that when men attempted to philo sophize about God, they should conceive Him or at
any
rate tend to conceive

Him

rather as a universal

principle, or archetypal source of ideas,

than as a concrete
its

personality.

Hence nominalism, with

frank denial of

the existence of universals, conceptualism with its reduc tion of them to figments of abstraction, seemed equally to involve atheism even realism of the more moderate
;

type, which, while asserting the objective existence of the universal, denied its existence ante rem i.e., apart from the particular was viewed with suspicion as tending to

merge God

in the

cosmos

Platonic order,

by

its

while realism of the high assertion of the existence of a world

;

to sense

of pure universals archetypes of the particulars revealed found favour in the eyes of men in whom the

philosophic interest was always strictly subordinated to the theological.

In the treatise "

De Ente et Uno "

the question as be

tween the transcendence and the immanence of

to the surface with remarkable abruptness. " " " i.e. God, to be regarded as Being or as
Is

God comes
"

the One,"

above Being ?"

Aristotle

is

supposed

to maintain the former position,

Plato undoubtedly holds the latter. To the Platonic doc trine Pico gives in his unqualified adhesion, and attempts
to constrain Aristotle to
is

do so

likewise.

His Platonism

of the most uncompromising type, the idealism of the Parmenides with the Parmenidean doubts and difficul

ties left out.

"

Abstract terms such as " whiteness "or

"

hu

manity signify, he asserts dogmatically, and apparently without a shadow of doubt as to the truth of the doctrine,
real existences

which are what they are

xxi

in their

own

right

and not by derivation from or participation

in

anything

else, while their corresponding concretes denote existences of an inferior order which are what they are by virtue of

their participation in the abstract

or archetypal

ideas.

Upon

this theory

theology.

As

he proceeds deliberately to base his whiteness in itself is not white, but the

archetypal cause of that particular appearance in objects, and in the same way heat in itself is not hot, but the cause
of the particular sensation which we call heat so God is not " Being" though, or rather because, He is the "fulness,"
;

the archetypal cause, of " Being." As thus the one " primal fountain of Being" He is properly described as " " God is all things and most eminently and the One."
i.e.

most perfectly

all

things

which cannot

be, unless

He

so

comprehends the perfections of all things in Himself as to exclude whatever imperfection is in them. Now, things are imperfect either (i) in virtue of some defect in them selves, whereby they fall short of the normal standard
proper to them, or (2) in virtue of the very limitations

which constitute them particular

objects.

It follows that

God being

perfect has in
is

particularity, but

neither any defect nor any the abstract universal unity of all
It
is,

Him

things in their perfection.

therefore, not correct to

say that He comprehends all things in Himself; for in that case neither would He be perfectly simple in nature,

nor would they be infinite which are in Him, but He would be an infinite unity composed of many things
infinite,

fection

indeed, in number, but finite in respect of per which to speak or think of God is profanity."

In other words, in order to get a true idea of

God we

must abstract from all plurality, all particularity whatever, and then we have as the residue the notion of a most
perfect, infinite, perfectly simple being.

God may,

then,

xxii

be called Being

itself,
it is

the

One

itself,

the

Good

itself,

the

True
is

itself;

but

better to describe

Him as that which

above Being, above truth, above unity, above good ness, since His Being is truth itself, unity itself, goodness
better
still

"

itself,"

to say of
all

Him

that

He

and

ineffably

above

that

we can most

"intelligibly perfectly say or

is

conceive of Him," and with Dionysius the Areopagite And so he quotes with to define him by negatives.
" approval part of the closing sentence of the treatise De Mystica Theologia" in which agnosticism seems to exhaust
itself in

the exuberant detail of

its

"

"
It
(i.e.

negations.

the First Cause) " is neither truth, nor dominion, nor wis dom, nor the One, nor unity, nor Deity, nor goodness, nor nor sonship nor fatherhood, spirit, as far as we can know
;

ture

nor aught else of things known to us or any other crea neither is it aught of things that are not nor of
;

things that are

nor

is it

known
;

knows them

itself as they are nor name, nor knowledge, nor darkness, nor light, nor And error, nor truth, nor any affirmation or negation."

any as it is itself nor whose is neither speech,

to

then, to give a colour of orthodoxy to his doctrine he quotes the authority of St. Augustine to the effect that
"

the

wisdom

of

God

is

no more wisdom than

justice,

His
life

justice no more justice than wisdom, His life no more than cognition, His cognition no more cognition than
for all these qualities are united in

life

God

not in the

way

tion as

of confusion or combination or by the interpenetrait were of things in themselves distinct, but by way
"
:

of a perfectly simple ineffable fontal unity a summary statement of some passages in the sixth book of the treatise
of course misleading apart from the context in which they occur.
Trinitate,"
is

"

De

which

Such

is

Pico's theory of the

xxiii

Godhead

a theory which

in fact reduces
plicity

it

to the

mere abstraction of

perfect sim

and

universality, a theory wholly irreconcilable with

faith,

the Christian

gion. Nor was its to have been only too painfully conscious of the barren ness of the results to which so much toil and trouble had

wholly unfit to form the basis of reli author insensible, rather he would seem

brought him
turns, as
if

for

he has no sooner enunciated

it

than he

with a sigh, to Politian, and addresses him

see,

thus
us.

"
:

But

my

Angelo, what madness possesses

than either define or

profit ourselves,

Love God while we are in the body we rather may know Him. By loving Him we more
have
less trouble, please

Him
way

better.

Yet had we rather ever seeking Him by the culation never find Him than by loving Him " which without loving were in vain found since Pico's day must have found an echo in

of spe possess that

words that
the heart of

a thinker weary with the vain effort to gain by philosophical methods a clear insight into the divine

many

nature.

an amicable controversy with his friend Antonio da Faenza (Antonius Faventinus

treatise involved Pico in

The

or
to

Cittadinus),

who

criticised

it

in

some
detail.

detail,

and
cor

whom

Pico replied with

no

less

The

respondence was protracted during his life, and was continued after his death by his nephew, but it sheds
little

on Pico's views. How far he seriously held them, and whether he had some esoteric method of reconciling them with the orthodox faith, are
additional
light

questions which

we have no means

of answering.

It is

curious, however, in reference to this matter, to

compare

the opening chapters of his commentary on Girolamo Benivieni's canzone on " Celestial Love." Benivieni
also

was a

Platonist,

and having saturated himself with

xxiv

Symposium and the Phaedrus, the fifth book of the third Ennead of Plotinus, and Ficino's commentaries,
the

thought himself qualified to write a canzone on ideal love which should put Guinicelli and Cavalcanti to shame. The
that he produced a canzone which has a certain undeniable elevation of style, but is so obscure that even
result

was

with the help of Pico's detailed commentary it takes some hard study to elicit its meaning. The theme, however, is
the purifying influence of love in raising the soul through various stages of refinement from the preoccupation with

sensuous beauty to the contemplation of the ideal type of the beautiful, and thence to the knowledge of God, who,
though, as Pico
is careful to explain, He is not beautiful since Himself, beauty implies an element of variety repug

nant to His nature, is nevertheless the source of the beautiful no less than of the true and the good.

The commentary

consists of

two parts

the

first

philosophical dissertation on love in general, its nature, the origin, and place in the universal scheme of things
;

second a detailed analysis and exposition of the poem, stanza by stanza, almost line by line. Both parts, in
spite of the

good

Italian in

which they are

written, are

unspeakably tedious, being mostly made up of bald rationalizations of Greek myths. The first few chapters,
however, are theological or theosophical and here we find God described consistently with the doctrine of the
;

"

De Ente

et

Uno"

as

"ineffably elevated

above

all

and cognition," while beneath Him, and between the intelligible and the sensible worlds is placed " a crea
intellect

ture of nature as perfect as it is possible for a creature to be," whom God creates from eternity, whom alone He

immediately creates, and

the

ancient

by Plato and likewise by philosophers, Mercury Trismegistus and xxv d

who

"

is called now the Son of God, now Mind, now now Divine Reason." Here we have a fusion Wisdom, and confusion of the " self-sufficing and most perfect God"

Zoroaster

created by the Demiurge of Plato's Timseus to be the archetype of the world, the Son of God of Philo and later
theosophists, and the Nou? of Plotinus, the first emanation of the Godhead. This Son of God, however, Pico bids us

observe,

is

not to be confounded with the

Son

of

God

of Christian theology,

who
<l

is

Creator and not creature,

first

may be regarded as created by God."

but

the

and most noble angel

last word on theology or the leaves question of his orthodoxy an Did he really believe in the Son of insoluble enigma. God of Christian theology, or had he not rather dethroned

This

is

virtually
it

Pico's

theosophy, and

Him
the

in

first

favour of the syncretistic abstraction which he calls and most noble angel created by God, though he
to

was too timid

avow

the

fact.

We

have seen that he

did not scruple to find types of Christ in created things, such as the firmament and the sun. Little stress can be
laid

on

this,

and

if it

stood alone

it

might be dismissed as

a piece of sheer inadvertence, but read in connection with the pregnant passage from the commentary on Benivieni's poem, it certainly makes in favour of the idea that
in the passion for unity

had abandoned his " De Ente et Uno " contains

found theological convictions.

which evidently possessed him Pico trinitarianism, and that the treatise
his

most mature and pro

If so, the caution against

confusing the two Sons of God must be interpreted as a mere device to save appearances.

However
even
in

this

may
The

be,

it is

the

conventional

undeniable that Pico was, Christian sense, a sincerely

to
his

religious

man.

letter

nephew, Giovanni

xxvi

Francesco, on the spiritual life, translated by More, has in it the ring of genuine simple Christian godliness, and

though Savonarola saw

religious
life,

fit

torial fire for his refusal to

to consign him to the purga devote himself entirely to the

in

he did so probably rather

sorrow than in

anger, on the principle that whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, regarding Pico as one who had in him the

making of a

saint,

but

who by

gran

rifiuto failed of

attaining unto the prize of his high calling.

That Pico should have found a theology which reduces to a caput mortuum of which nothing can be said but that it is above all things, and Christ to a "great

God

angel," the

first of created beings, compatible with the ardent piety of a Catholic saint would indeed simple and be a notable phenomenon, but, at the same time, one

which sound criticism would accept without attempting to

account for

No exercise it, much less to explain it away. of ingenuity would ever succeed in harmonising his theology with the Catholic or any form of the Christian
of his piety.

faith,

equally impossible to dispute the sincerity It is all part and parcel of the peculiar, unique idiosyncracy of the man's nature, a nature com pounded of mysticism and rationalism, credulity and
it is

and

scepticism, in about equal proportions.

simple words of Moses, he believes in natural magic, and holds that it testifies more clearly of Christ than any other science, yet
finds strange
in the

He

hidden meanings

he cannot credit the story of Christ's descent into

the doctrine of
transubstantiation,

hell,

or

or the

eternity of
in

punishment, and writes an elaborate treatise books against the pretensions of astrology.

twelve

man

of

immense and varied learning, not merely classical but oriental, he yet permitted himself to be imposed on by a
xxvii

Sicilian Jew, to

whom

worthless cabalistic

he gave an immense sum for some treatises, under the impression that

they were the lost works of Ezra. Perhaps it is unfair to take seriously what

may have
;

been merely a compliment less sincere than gracious but it certainly does not tend to raise one's impression of his
critical

powers to

find

Pico, in

a letter to Lorenzo de'

Medici, setting Lorenzo's insipid verses above anything that Dante or Petrarch ever wrote.

With
to Pico.

all this it is

more easy

to

do

injustice than justice

It is

impossible to study

him

attentively with

out seeing at last that amidst all his vagaries, absurdities, perversities, there was real faculty in him, and faculty of

an order which, matured by a severer discipline than his age could afford, would have won for him a place,

though perhaps no very exalted one, among philosophers. The philosophic instinct, without doubt, he had, and in
high measure, a veritable passion not merely for truth but for a consistent, harmonious body of truth. The

high originative faculty which discovers a method was denied him. Hence he remained a mere syncretist for
lornly struggling to
rival schools into

weave the discordant utterances of

His importance
for

a coherent system.

the student of philosophy is that he made this attempt, made it with wider knowledge and more passionate zeal

than any of his predecessors, and failed, and that with his failure scholasticism as a movement came to an end.
Individual

thinkers

indeed

there

have been, such as

Leibniz and Coleridge, in whom something of Pico's spirit has survived, whose laudable anxiety to justify the ways of God to man has led them to attempt the recon
ciliation

of

the

irreconcilable,

of

atomism,

e.g.,

with

idealism, of transcendentalism with

xxviii

the Christian faith,

and such men are

time.
call

schoolmen born out of due Nevertheless that which in the specific sense we
in effect

scholasticism

made

in

Pico

its final effort,

was beaten

by the sheer intractability of its problem, which the learning made ever more apparent, and died out.

new

Schoolman, however, though Pico was, it must not be His style, even forgotten that he was also a humanist.
where, as in the
formal,
"

Apologia," he

is at

his driest

and most
dis

and

in the

attempt to reconcile his heresies with

of his

Catholic doctrine, becomes, in the fineness

tinctions, almost more scholastic than the subtlest doctor that ever spun intellectual cobwebs in Oxford or Paris,

effectually distinguishes

him from
"

"

the barbarians," and

;

proclaims him a
justly celebrated
all

child of the renaissance

and long and

golden letters" in which, in the luxuriance of Ciceronic periods, he praises Politian's

were the

translation of the Enchiridion of Epictetus or Lorenzo's verses, discusses the rival claims of the old and new

learning with Ermolao Barbaro, descants on the regal dignity of philosophy and philosophers to Andrea Corneo, exhorts his nephew to the practice of the Christian life,
or expatiates to Ficino on his new-born zeal for oriental
studies.

In none of these does he appear to better advantage than in one of the earliest, written in reply to a flattering letter from Politian, which in effect admitted him to the
confraternity of learned men. " " I am as much beholden to for the you," he writes, in high praise you give me your last letter as I am far from

For one is beholden to another for what he deserving it. Wherefore, indeed, I am gives, not for what he pays.
beholden to you for
there
is

all

that

you write of me, since

in

me
to

nothing of the kind, for you in no

way owed

it

xxix

me, but it all came of your courtesy and singular graciousness towards me. For the rest, if you examine me, you
will find

limited.
step,

nothing in me that is not slight, humble, strictly I am a novice, a tiro, and have advanced but a
It is

Something meant by a man of learning, a title appropriate only to you and your likes, too grand for me since of those matters which in letters are most important I have as yet obtained no thorough knowledge, scarcely more indeed than, as it were, a peep through a lattice window. I will endeavour indeed, and that I now do, to become some time or another such as you say and either really think, Meantime I or at any rate would fain think, that I am.

no more, from the darkness of ignorance. pliment to place me in the rank of a student.

com

more

is

will follow

excuse yourself to the Greeks by the fact that you are a Latin, to the Latins

your example, Angelo,

who

on the ground that you grecize. I too will have recourse to a similar subterfuge, and claim the indulgence of the poets and rhetoricians because I am said to philosophize, of the
philosophers because I play the rhetorician and cultivate the Muses though my case is very different from yours.
;

For

in

sooth while
I fall
I

desire to

sit,

chairs,

between them, and

it

as they say, on two turns out at last (to be

brief) that

am

philosopher."

How
in the

neither a poet, nor a rhetorician, nor a strictly these gloomy forebodings

were realised
seen.
of the

From

matter of philosophy we have already attempting to decide how far his cultivation

own

are precluded act, the destruction of his early love poems.

:

Muses was rewarded we

by

Pico's

Of these

the following sonnet alone has been preserved Da poi che i duo belli occhi che mi fanno
Cantar del mio Signer
si

nuovamente,
second' anno,

Avvamparo
Gia volge

la

mia gelata mente,

il

in lieta sorte

xxx

Felice giorno, ch'a Fu bel principio

si
;

dolce affanno

onde nel cor

7

si

sente

Una fiamma girar si dolcemente, Che men beati son que' che n ciel
L'ombra,
il

stanno.
letto

pensier, la negligenza,

e'l

M'avean ridotto, ove la maggior parte Giace ad ogn' or del vulgo errante e vile.
Scorsemi

Amore a

piu gradito oggetto

'1

se cosa di grato oggi a

affina in

mio

stile,

Madonna
Since
first

me

1'ingegno e Farte.
thine eyes,

the light of those twin

stars,

That me to hymn my Lord thus newly move, Kindled my frost-bound soul with fires of love, Years twain their course have run in happy wise.

Such

blessed day, of such sweet heaviness fair beginning Since when to and fro
!

Within

my

heart a gentle flame doth go,

That not
Recluse

in

heaven

is

found such happiness.

lost,

I lived, in

musing

nor care,
a part
base.
fair
:

Nor action knew, wellnigh become Of the vile herd of errant men and
Love roused my soul
to seek

an end more
art.

And

if

my

style to-day

has aught of grace

My
If this

lady

'tis

refines

my mind and
is

sample of Pico's amatory effusions, one can more readily understand why he burned them than the regret which their destruction
fair

somewhat

insipid sonnet

caused Politian, and which drew from him the following

epigram

IIoMaKJ To|ey0i

tyhf/fikis 6' VTTQ

OuK
To|a,

EThYl TTfOTegCi),
jScTuj,

7TVT
KOii

<pafTpa$,

vmffOf TO. ye

WO.VTQIK;

pap^as
TO

a/xsvnva

'

<

TTUfH tphsi-B

TTtJ^

Tl

to

a<PgOV$ dUTOV

Tov

ILttOV

xxx

Ficino took a different view from Politian.

of love," he wrote after Pico's death,
"

"

Somewhat
in the

he had written

heat of his youth, which in his riper judgment he con demned and determined altogether to destroy, nor could
it

have been published without damage

to his reputation."

This, however, probably refers not so much to the lite His rary merit of the poems as to their moral tone.

nephew, Giovanni Francesco Pico distinctly states that It is evident they were destroyed "religionis causa."
also

from the way in which Politian refers to them that they were such as a less severe moralist than Ficino " " that you I hear," he wrote, might have censured. have burned the little love poems which you made in the

fearing perhaps lest they should injure your fair fame or the morals of others. For I cannot think that
past,

you have destroyed them, as Plato is said to have destroyed For his, because they were not worthy of publication. as far as I remember nothing could be more terse, more sweet or more polished." Pico was wont to solace himself with Propertius, and had wantoned with other ladies than the Muses, so that in all likelihood his love poetry was decidedly more ardent than chaste. More (p. 13 infra) is
" inaccurate in stating that the " five books thus destroyed were in the vulgar tongue. They were written, as we

" learn from Giovanni Francesco Pico elegiaco carmine,"

i.e.

in

The
time.
(1)
(2)

Italian

Latin elegies, probably modelled on Propertius. poems, however, were destroyed at the same
Pico's Latin elegiacs two specimens survive
to
:

Of
hymn

God

an encomiastic
first

written probably after his conversion poem on his friend Girolamo Benivieni.

For the

no high merit can be claimed.

The attempt

to give poetical expression to the mysteries of Christian " theology is nearly always unsuccessful, and Pico's Depre-

xxxii

catoria

"

forms no exception to the

it is

rule.

The most
Such

that
as
it

can be said for

that

it is

tolerable Latin.

here printed for comparison with More's is, however, translation, which will be found at page 74 infra.
it is

JOANNIS PICI MIRANDUL^E DEPRECATORIA AD DEUM.

Alme Deus summa qui maj estate verendus, Vere unum in triplici numine numen habes Cui super excels! flammantia moenia mundi
!

Angelici servit turba beata chori

Cujus

et

immensum hoc

oculis spectabile nostris

Omnipotens quondam dextra

creavit

opus
:

^Ethera qui torques, qui nutu dirigis orbem, Cujus ab imperio fulmina missa cadunt
Parce, precor, miseris, nostras, precor, ablue sordes, Ne nos justa tui pcena furoris agat.

Quod
Et

si

sit

judicii

nostra pari pensentur debita lance norma severa tui,

Quis queat horrendum viventis

ferre flagellum Vindicis, et plagas sustinuisse graves ?

Non

ipsa iratae restabit Machina dextrae, Machina supremo non peritura die. Quae mens non primae damnata ab origine culpae, Aut quae non proprio crimine facta nocens ?
ille

Ast certe

ipse es

proprium cui parcere semper,

:

Justitiamque pari qui pietate tenes Praemia qui ut meritis longe maiora rependis,

Namque

Supplicia admissis sic leviora malis. tua est nostris major dementia culpis, Et dare non dignis res mage digna Deo est.

sat digni, si quos dignatur amare non Qui quos dignos invenit ipse facit. tuos Ergo placido miserans, precor, aspice vultu, Seu servos mavis, seu magis esse reos

Quamquam

Nempe

reos, nostrae

si

spectes crimina

vitae,
:

Ingratae nimium crimina mentis opus At tua si potius in nobis munera cernas, Munera praecipuis nobilitata bonis, Nos sumus ipsa olim tibi quos natura ministros

Mox

fecit

natos gratia sancta tuos.

xxxiii

Sed premit heu

fecit

miseros tantse indulgentia natos Quos gratia, culpa reos. vincat gratia culpam, reos sed fecit, Culpa Ut tuus in nostro crimine crescat honor.
!

sortis,

Nam

tua sive aliter sapientia, sive potestas,

Nota suas mundo prodere possit opes, Major in erratis bonitatis gloria nostris, Illeque prae cunctis fulget amandus amor,
Qui potuit ccelo Dominum deducere ab alto, Inque crucem summi tollere membra Dei
:

Ut male
Sic

contractas patrio de semine sordes

:

Ablueret

O O

lateris sanguis et unda tui amor et pietas tua, Rex mitissime, tantis Dat mala materiem suppeditare bonis. amor O pietas nostris bene provida rebus
!

O O

bonitas servi facta ministra tui

!

O pietas nostris male cognita saeclis bonitas nostris nunc prope victa malis Da, precor, huic tanto qui semper fervet amori Ardorem in nostris cordibus esse parem
amor
! ! :

Da

Sathanae imperium, cui tot servisse per annos Poenitet excusso deposuisse jugo
:

Da, precor, extingui vesanae incendia mentis,

Et tuus

in nostro pectore vivat

Ut cum

mortalis perfunctus
erit

amor munere vitae

:

Ductus

Dominum
sed

spiritus ante

suum,

Promissi regni

felici sorte

Non Dominum

Te

potitus sentiat esse Patrem.

The poem on

Benivieni

is

in a

happier vein
!

Lsetor, io, Tyrrhena, tibi, Florentia, laetor

Clamet, io Paean, quisquis amicus adest

Quale decus, quae fama,

tibi,

quae gloria surgit

!

Tolle caput, Libycas tolle superba jubas Ille tuos agros intra et tua mcenia natus,

Atque Ami liquidas inter adultus aquas, Cui cum divinum sit sacro in pectore numen Quam bene de sacro nomine nomen habet
Ille,

inquam, plausu jam ccepit ubique frequenti, Jam ccepit multo non sine honore legi.
Ausonias
illius

Sicelis

Fert celebrem

Musa per urbes magna Candida laude pedem.

xxxiv

Auctorem

patriae quisquis legit invidet

illi,

Atque optat patriae nomina tanta suae. Gaude, gaude iterum tanto insignita decore, Et vati adplaudas terra beata tuo.
Cinge coronatos vernanti flore capillos, Conveniunt titulo Florida serta tuo. Undique Achaemenio spargantur compita costo, Et per odoratas lilia multa vias.

En

stirps in nostras

Benivenia protulit auras

!

Etruscum docto qui gerat ore sen em Ponite Avernales jam gens Etrusca cupressus, Quas rapta immiti funere Laura dedit. Pellantur queruli fletus en Laura revixit ;
;
!

Spirat

et

argutum

novit, ut ante, loqui.

solito nitet ilia magis, majorque priore Nescio quae cultu gratia ab ore venit. Reddidit hanc nobis laus nostrae Hieronimus urbis, Et dedit infernos posse iterare lacus

Quin

At

certe (procul hinc

Livor inique facessas)

ilia

Nunc

graviore sonat grandius

!

chely.

Di Superi sublime ales modulatur, ut aequa Sit jam Romano Tusca loquela sono. Nee tamen ille Euros frondosus jactat inanes
Plus

quam

promittit fronte recessus habet.

Quid
Sic

referam,

quam

lenis erat ?

quam carmina piano

:

In numeros currunt ordine juncta suos

saepe sacros vidisse liquores Profluere, imbriferi vis ubi nulla Noti. Sed quis miretur meditato in carmine tantum

memini me

Cultus,

cum

pariter

non meditata canat ?

Quis non hunc juret Phoebum,

modo pendeat

arcus
?

Cornua sint, Bromium quis neget esse Deum Audivi hunc quoties cithara cantare recurva, Abduxit sensus protinus ille meos. Et quid non possent digiti mulcere loquentis ?
Sisteret his rapidi flumina

magna Padi

Phoebeos medio firmaret in asthere currus

Lunares pictos
Terribilem
saevis

sisteret

axe boves.
revocaret ab armis
:
:

Martem

Leniret Ditem, falciferumque senem

Flectere Strymonias flecteret

Et quas non potuit quondam Rhodopeius Orpheus

ille

nurus.

XXXV

apparently written after the death of Lorenzo, whose successor Pico hails in Benivieni. The

The poem was

" Sicelis," applied to Benivieni's muse, refers to epithet his bucolics one of which (in praise of poetry) is entitled "Lauro," after Lorenzo; in another, which bears the
;

name

of

"

Pico,"

Lorenzo and Pico converse

in

amcebean

strains. "

"Laura" stands apparently for Lorenzo's muse. Etruscum qui gerat ore senem," is an uncouth and somewhat obscure phrase. " Nee tamen ille Euros frondosus jactat inanes" is plainly corrupt, but it is not easy " to suggest a satisfactory emendation. Quid referam, " been written to have Latin quam lenis erat ? is too bad

by

Pico.

Perhaps the true reading

is

"

quam

lene sonet."

verses are undeniably spirited, though rhetorical for true poetry.

It
is,

The

somewhat too

indeed, only as a rhetorician that Pico can claim The letter to Ermolao Barbaro in to have succeeded.

defence of the schoolmen, and that to Lorenzo in praise of his verses are admirable examples of the rhetorical
for as such they must pure and simple a little too elaborate, perhaps, primarily be regarded too artificial, too declamatory, but still decidedly meri

exercise

torious in their kind.

have not

they certainly indeed the scholastics of Padua were so far

The

air of sincerity

from taking Pico's eloquent panegyric of their predecessors seriously that they were inclined to suspect him of laugh

Nor is it easy to believe that ing at them in his sleeve. Pico was really sincere in the exaggerated encomium which he passed on the verses of Lorenzo, one of the
which even that age of learned insipidity produced. The real man, however, undoubtedly speaks in the letters on the philosophic and Christian

most

insipid writers

life,

the latter written,

it

must be remembered, when Pico

xxxvi

was solemnized by the recent death of Lorenzo. The minor letters exhibit Pico in the pleasant light of the
scholar writing to his friends to give or solicit information on various literary questions. One closes them, how
ever, with a sigh of regret that the scholar should pre

dominate so much over the man.

How

thankful

we should have been

for a

few easy

gossiping letters in the vulgar tongue revealing Pico to us as he was in his moments of complete abandon. Per
haps, however, he knew none such, to reveal that he has not revealed.

and there was nothing Sense of humour he

have not found
in

seems certainly

to

have lacked

him

the least suggestion that he had any faculty of hearty If he ever had it, severe study laughing in him at all.

must have crushed it out of him. Probably the basis of his nature was a deep religious melancholy, not at all lightened by the fact that learning had impaired his hold on the faith.

drew towards its close Pico's pre occupation with religion became more intense and ex " clusive. Besides the " Rules of a Christian Life, and " the " Interpretation of Psalm XVI., translated by More, he wrote an Exposition of the Lord's Prayer, and pro jected, but did not live to execute a Commentary on
his short life

As

Testament, for which he prepared himself by diligent collation of such MSS. as he could come by also a defence of the Vulgate and of the Septuagint version of the Psalms against the criticisms of the Jewish
the
;

New

and an elaborate apology for Christianity against seven classes of opponents to wit (i) atheists, (2) idolaters, (3) Jews, (4) Mahometans, (5) Christians who
scholars,
;

reject a portion of the faith, (6) Christians

who

adulterate

the faith with profane superstitions, (7) orthodox Chrisxxxvii

tians

who

live

unholy

lives.

Some

idea of the scale of

this vast

may be gathered from the fact that Adversus the treatise Astrologos," which occupies 240 closely printed folio pages formed only a small fragment
undertaking
"

of

it.

But while thus zealous

for the

defence of the

faith,

Pico seems never to have seriously contemplated entering the Church, though often urged to do so not only by Savonarola but by other of his friends, who thought

he might reasonably aspire to the dignity of cardinal. Their solicitude for his advancement he rebuked with
a haughty
vestrae."
"

Non

sunt

cogitationes

meae cogitationes
of lay advocate

Probably he considered that he could render

religion truer service in the character

than

he were trammelled by clerical offices. Short as his life was, he survived his three most
if

inti

mate

friends,

Lorenzo

Politian, all of

whom

Ermolao Barbaro, and died within the two years 1492-4.

de' Medici,

Probably the grief caused by this succession of mis fortunes had much to do with inducing or aggravating the fever of which he died hardly two months after

Nov. 1494. The corpse, invested by Savonarola's own hands with the habit of the order of the Frati Predicanti, in which he had ardently desired to
Politian,

on i7th

enrol Pico during his

life,

was buried

in the

church of S.
:

Marco.

The tomb was

"

inscribed with the epitaph

:

Joannes jacet hie Mirandula caetera norunt Et Tagus, et Ganges, forsan et Antipodes."

Ficino,

who had been

to

him

"

in

years as a father, in

intimacy as a brother, in affection as a second self/' wrote

another epitaph, which was not, however, placed upon the tomb " Antistites secretiora mysteria raro admodum
:

xxxviii

concedunt

oculis,

statimque recondunt.

Ita

Deus mor-

talibus divinum philosophum Joannem Picum Mirandulam trigesimo (sic) anno maturum."

The generous enthusiasm which prompted

Politian to

" confer upon his friend the high-sounding title of Phcenix " of the wits (Fenice degli ingegni) has not been justified

by

events.

Once sunk

in his

ashes the Phcenix never

rose again.

The

pious care of Giovanni Francesco Pico,

life

who pub

lished his uncle's

and works

at

Venice

in 1498, did

much, indeed, to avert the oblivion which ultimately fell This edition, however, was imperfect, the upon him. Theses and the Commentary on Benivieni's poem, with

some minor matters being

omitted.

in the Basel edition of 1601.

The

"

These were added Golden Letters"

the
last

have passed through many

Cellario in

editions,

that

of

1682.

The Commentary on

Celestial

and

Divine Love was reprinted as late as 1731. Pico figures in a dim and ever dimmer way in the older histories of philosophy from Stanley, who gives a
rude and imperfect translation of the
"
"

Commentary
in

to

Hegel,

who

dismisses

him and

his

works

a few

lines.

More

recently, however,

one of Hegel's laborious fellow-

countrymen, Georg Dreydorff, discovered a system in Pico and expounded it. 1

he excites

But most Englishmen probably owe such interest as in them to Mr. Pater's charming sketch in his

" The Renaissance," or dainty volume of studies entitled the slighter notices in Mr. J. A. Symonds' " Renaissance

in Italy," or

Mr. Seebohm's

"

Oxford Reformers."
reprinted
is

The
1

Life

by

Sir

Thomas More now

"Das System

des Johann Pico Grafen von Mirandula und Con-

cordia,"

Marburg^ 1858.

xxxix

somewhat reduced and inaccurate version of Giovanni

Francesco Pico's work.
a
small
black-letter

The

reprint
in

is

executed from

quarto

the

British

Museum,

Worde about 1510. The old as far as possible, the old punctuation has spelling and,
printed by

Wynkyn

de
in

been retained, though

many

places

it

has been neces

sary to alter the latter in order to avoid intolerable harsh ness or obscurity.
chronicles of Mirandola, edited for the municipality " in 1872, under the title Memorie Storiche della Citta

The

dell'

Antico Ducato della Mirandola," are an authority

of capital importance for the history of the Pico family and its connexions. The notes to Riccardo Bartoli's

"Elogio al Principe Pico" (1791) also contain some valuable original matter. The critical judgment of the last century on Pico's services to the cause of the revival
" given by Christoph Meiners in Lebensbeschreibungen beriihmter Manner der Wiederherstel-

of learning

is

lung

der

Wissenschaften."
into

Some

of

Pico's

letters

translated,

the

ponderous

English of the period,

connected by a thread of biography, and illustrated by erudite notes, will be found in W. Parr Greswell's

"Memoirs of Angelus Politianus," etc. 1805. The best modern Italian biography is that by F. Calori Cesis, " entitled Giovanni Pico della Mirandola detto La Fenice
degli Ingegni" (2nd edn. 1872).

xl

HERE IS CONTEYNED THE LYFE OF JOHAN PICUS ERLE OF MYRANDULA A CRETE LORDE OF ITALY AN EXCELLENT CONNYNGE MAN IN ALL SCIENCES & VERTEOUS OF LYVYNGE. WITH DYVERS EPYSTLES & OTHER WERKES OF Y E SAYD JOHAN PICUS FULL OF CRETE SCIENCE VERTUE & WYSEDOME WHOSE LIFE & WERKES BENE WORTHY & DYGNE TO BE REDDE AND OFTEN TO BE HAD IN
MEMORYE.

RYGHT ENTYERLY BELOVED CHRYST JOYEUCE LEYGH THOMAS MORE GRETYNG IN OUR LORDE.
HIS

UNTO

SYSTER IN

IT

is

and of longe tyme hath bene

beloved
fyfter

my

well

a cuftome in the

e begynnynge of y newe yere frendes to fende betwene prefentes or gyftes, as the wytneffes of theyr love and frende

fhyp

& alfo fygnyfyenge that they defyre

eche to other that yere a good contynuance and profperous But communely all ende of that lucky bygynnynge.
thofe prefentes that are ufed cuftomably all in this maner betwene frendes to be fente be fuche thynges as pertayne

onely unto the body eyther to be fed or to be cledde or

fome otherwyfe delyted

frendfhyp
is

by whiche

hit

femeth that theyr

but flefshely

&

ftretcheth in

maner

to the

body

onely.

But

for

afmoche as the love

&

amyte of

chryften folke
:

fholde

be rather goofty frendfhyp then

bodely fyth y* all faythfull people are rather fpyrituall then carnall for as th'apoflle feyth we be not now in
:

flefshe

myne

I therfore but in fpyryte yf Chryfte abyde in us hertly beloved fyfter in good lucke of this newe
:

yere have fent you fuche a prefent as maye bere wytnes of my tendre love & zele to the happy contynuaunce and

gracyoufe encreace of vertue in your foule

3

and where as

the giftes of other folke declare y they wyfsheth theyr frendes to be worldly fortunate, myne teftyfyeth y I del

have you godly profperous. Thefe werkes more profitable then large were made in laten by one Johan Picus
fyre to

Erie of Mirandula a lordfhyp in Italy, of whose connynge & vertue we nede here nothinge to fpeke, for afmoche as here after

our

perufe the courfe of his hole lyfe rather after lytel power flenderly then after his merites fuffyciently. The werkes are fuche that truely good fyfter I fuppofe of

we

the quantyte there cometh none in your hand more pro fitable neyther to th'achyvynge of temperaunce in proe nor to y purchafynge of pacience in adverfite, fperite,
:

nor to the dyfpyfynge of worldly vanyte, nor to the defyrynge of hevenly felycyte:

whiche werkes
t
:

wolde

ne were hit y they be requyre you gladly to receyve fuche that for the goodly mater (how fo ever they be tranflated) may delyte pleafe ony perfone that hath

&

ony meane defyre and love to God and that your felfe is fuche one as for your vertue and fervent zele to God
:

can not but joyoufly receyve ony thynge that meanely fowneth eyther to the reproche of vyce, commendacyon
of vertue, or honoure and laude of God,
you.

who

preferve

THE LYFE OF JOHAN PICUS, ERIE OF MIRANDULA.

iOHAN PICUS OF THE

fyde defcended of the worthy of lynage th'emperoure Conftantyne by a nevew of the fayd Emperour called
faders
Picus,
this
2

by whom all the Aunceftres of Johan Picus undoubtedly bere that

name.

But we

fhal let his aunceftres paffe, to

whome

(though they were ryght excellent) he gave agayne as moche honour as he receyved. And we fhal fpeke of

hym

reherfynge in parte his lernynge and his vertue. For thefe be the thynges whiche maye accompte for our
felfe

owne, of whiche every man is more proprely to be commended then of y e noblenes of his aunceftres whofe
:

honoure maketh us not honorable.

them
for

felfe

vertuoufe or not
felfe
is

For eyther they were yf not, then had they none

:

honour them
honoure

had they never fo grete poffeffyons the rewarde of vertue. And how may
:

they clayme the rewarde y* proprely longeth to vertue e Then yf they lak the vertue that y rewarde longeth to.
yf them felfe had none honour
l
:

how myght

they leve to

theyr heyres y thynge whiche they had not them felfe. On y e other fyde yf they be vertuous and fo confequently
5

honorable, yet

maye they
for.
:

enheretaunce

not leve theyr honoure to us as no more then the vertue that them felfe

were honourable

For never the more noble be we

yf our felfe lak thofe thynges for which they were noble. But rather the more worfhipful that our aunceftres were, the more vile and fhamfull be
for theyr noblenes

we

yf

we
:

lyvynge darke fpotte of our vyce the more evydently to appere and to be ye more marked. But Picus of whom we fpeke

declyne from y fteppes of theyr worfhypfull e y clere beauty of whofe vertue makith the

was him felfe fo honorable, for y grete plentuoufe e habundaunce of all fuche vertues, y poffeffyon wherof very honoure foloweth (as a fhadowe folowith a body) y he was to all them y* afpyre to honour a very fpectacle,
1

whofe condycyons as in a clere pullifhed myrrour they myght beholde in what poyntes very honour ftondeth
in
:

whofe merveylous connynge & excellent vertue though my rude lernynge be ferre unable fuffyciently to expreffe
l
:

yet for as

moche

as yf no

fholde do hit & he y might fufficiently do hit, better it were to be unfufficiently done then utterly un
:

man no man

fholde do hit but

done

I
:

fhal therfore as

hole lyfe
after (y
l

at the leefl

wyfe

to

can brefely reherfe you his gyve fome other man here

when

occafyon to take hit in hande hit mail happely greve hym to fe the lyfe of fuche
hit better)

can do

an excellent connyng

man

fo ferre

unkonnyngly wryten.

OF HIS PARENTES AND TYME OF HIS BYRTH.

c In y yere of our Lorde God CCCC Ixiii Pius the feconde beynge than the generall vycare of Chryfte in his chyrche and Frederyk the thyrde of y' name rulynge
.
.

the

empyre

this noble

man was borne

6

the

laft

chylde of

his

mother Julya, a woman comen of a noble flok, 3 his father hyght Johan Frauncife, a lorde of grete honoure and

au6torite.

OF THE WONDRE THAT APPERED BEFORE HIS BYRTH.

merveyloufe fyght was there fcene before his byrthe e there appered a fyery garlande ftandynge over y chaumbre
:

of his mother whyle fhe travelled

:

& fodenly vanyfshed was which peradventure a token that away apparence he whiche fholde y houre in the companye of mortall
l

underftandynge fholde be lyke y perfyte fygure of that rounde cyrcle or garlande and that his excellent name fholde rounde aboute the
e
:

men be borne

in the perfeccion of

cyrcle of this hole world be magnyfyed, whofe mynde fholde alway as the fyre afpyre upwarde to hevenly

thynge, and whofe fyry eloquence fholde with an ardent hert in tyme to come whorfhip and prayfe almighty God
ftrength and as that flame fodenly vanifshyd e fo fholde this fyre fone frome y eyen of mortal people be

with

all his

hydde.

We have oftyntymes red that fuche unknowen and

flraunge tokens hathe gone before or foloweth the natyvytefe of excellente wyfe and vertuoufe men, departynge

were) and by Goddes commaundement feverynge e the cradyls of fuche fpecyall chyldren fro y company of other of the comune forte and fhewynge y* they be
(as hit
:

borne to the acchevynge of fome grete thyng. But to The grete Saynt Ambrofe a fwarme paffe over other.
:

of bees flewe aboute his

mouth

in
1

his cradle,

&

fome

entred in to his mouthe, and after y yffuynge out agayne and fleynge up on hyghe, hydynge them felfe amonge the e cloudes, efcaped bothe y fyght of his father and of all them that were prefent: whiche pronoftycacyon one
7

makynge moche of, expowned it to fignyfye to us the fwete hony combes of his plefaunt wrytynge whiche fholde fhewe out the celeftiall gyftes of God
Paulinus
:

&

fholde lyfte

up the mynde of men from erthe

in to

heven.

OF HIS PERSONE.
and fhappe femely and beauteous, of and goodly hyghe, of flefshe tendre and fofte his vyfage lovely and fayre, his coloure white entermengled with comely ruddes, his eyen gray and quicke of loke, his
feture
ftature
:

He

was of

teth white

and even,

his heere

5 yelowe and not to piked.

OF HIS SETTYNGE FORTHE TO SCOLE

AND STUDY
Under y
e

IN

HUMANTYE.

rule

to mayfters

&

and governaunce of his mother he was fet to lernynge where with fo ardent mynde
:

he labored the fludyes of humanite y* within fhorte whyle he was (and not without a caufe) accompted amonge the chyef Oratours and Poetes of that tyme in
:
:

lernynge mervayloufly fwyfte and of fo redy a wyt, that e y verfis whiche he herde ones red he wolde agayne

bothe forwarde and bakwarde to the grete wonder of the herers reherfe, and over that wolde holde hit in fure

remembraunce

whiche

in other folkes

wonte comenly
l

to

For they y* are fwyfte in takyng be in flowe oftentymes remembrynge, and they y with more labour fuerely dyffyculte receyve hit more fafl
happen contrary.

&

&

holde

hit.

OF HIS STUDY IN CANONE.

In the fouretene yere of his age by the commaundement of his mother (whiche longed vere fore to have hym e preeft) he departed to Bononye to ftudy in y lawes of
the chyrche, whiche

whan he had two

8

yere tafted, per-

ceyvynge that the faculte leyned to nothinge but onely mery tradicions and ordinaunces, his mynde fyll frome
hit

he not his tyme therin, for in that two yere yet beynge a chylde he compyled a brevyary or a fumme upon all the decretalles, in whiche as brefly as poffyble
:

yet

loft

was he compryfed th' effe<5te of all y hole grete volume, and made a boke no fclender thyng to ryght connyng &
perfyte doftours.

OF HIS STUDY IN PHYLOSOPHYE & DEVYNYTE.

After this as a defyrous enferchour of the fecretes of nature he lefte thefe commyn troden pathes and gave

hym

hole to fpeculation philofophy as well humane as devyne. For the purchafynge wherof (afte the maner
felfe

&

of Plato and Appollonius) he fcrupuloufly fought out all the famous do6lours of his tyme, vifytynge fhudeoufly

the unyverfytes and fcoles not onely through Italy but And fo infatigable laboure gave alfo through Fraunce.
all

he to thofe fludies

that yet a chylde

in

and berdles he was

bothe reputed and was

dede bothe a perfyte philo-

fophre and a perfyte devyne.

OF HIS MYNDE AND VAYNGLORYOUSE DISPICIONS OF ROME.

yere converfaunt in thefe fludies whan full of pryde defyrous of glory and mannes prayfe e (for yet was he not kendled in y love of God) he went to
vii.

Now

had he ben.

&

Rome, and there (covetynge to make a shew of his connynge & lytel confideringe how grete envye he fholde
:

reyfe agaynft

hym

felfe) ix.
:

C. queflions he purpofed, of

as well in logike and phifondry maters dyverfe lofophye as dyvynyte with grete ftudy piked and fought

&

and partly fet oute of the fecrete mifteryes of the Hebrewes, Caldeyes, & Arables and many thynges drawen out of y e olde obfcure philofophye of Pythagoras,Trimegiftus, and Orpheus, 7
out as well of the laten au6lours as the Grekes
: :

other thynges ilraunge and to all folke (except ryght fewe fpecyall excellente men) before that daye not unknowen onely but alfo unherde of. All whiche queftions

&

many

e open places (y they myght be to all people y better knowen) he faftened and fet up, offeryng alfo hym selfe

in

to bere the cofles of all fuche as

wolde come hyther out

e

of ferre countrees to dyfpute, but thorughe y

envye of

his malicyous enemyes (which envye lyke y fyre ever draweth to y e hyghefh) he coude never brynge a boute to have a day to his dyfpicions appoynted. For this caufe

he taryed at Rome an hole yere, in all which tyme his envyours never durfte openly with open difpicyons atempt hym, but rather with crafte and fleyght and as it

were with pryvey trenches enforced to under myne hym, for none other caufe but for malice and for they were (as

many men

thought) corrupte with a peilylent envye.

This envye as men demed was fpecyaly rayfed agaynft hym for this caufe that where there were many whiche had

many
them

yeres
felfe

fome

for glory
:

fome

for couetyfe

gyven

to lernynge

happely deface

they thought that hit fholde theyr fame minyfshe th'opynyon of

&

theyr connynge yonge a man plenteoufe of fubilaunce & greate doftryne durfte in the chyefe cyte of the worlde make a profe of his wyt and his lernyng as

yf fo

well in thinges naturall as in divinite in many fuche as men thynges many yeres never attayned to. No we

&

when they perceyved

that they coude not agaynft his

connynge ony thynge openly preuayle, they brought forth the ferpentynes of falfe crime, and cryed out that
10

there wer.

xiij.

of his.
to
e

ix.

C. queflyons fufpecle of heryfye.

them fome good fymple folke that fholde of zele to y fayth and pretence of relygion impugne thofe queftions as newe thynges & with whiche In whiche impugnacyon theyr eres had not be in ure. fome of lacked not good mynde though theym happely whiche quefyet lacked they erudycyon and lernynge
: :

Then joyned they

tyons notwitflondynge before that not a fewe famous doclours of divynyte had approved as good and clene, and fubfcribed theyr names undre them. But he not

berynge the
xiij.

loffe
:

of his fame

made a defence

for,

thofe

and

queflyons a werke of greate erudicyon and elegant fluffed with the cognytyon of many thynges worthy

to be lerned.

Whiche werke he compyled

:

in

xx nyghtes.
:

not onely that thofe conclufyons were good and flondyng with the fayth but alfo y* they whiche had barked at theym were of foly and rudeneffe to be reproved whiche defence and all
:

In whiche hit evedently appereth

other thynges that he fholde wryte he commytted lyke a good chryflen man to y e mofl holy judgement of our

mother holy chyrche

whiche defence receyved

:

&y

xiij.

queflions duly by delyberacyon examyned our holy father e y pope approved Picus and tenderly favoured hym, as by

a bull of our holy father pope Alexandre the vj, hit playnly appereth but the boke in whiche the hole. ix. C.
:

queflions with theyr conclufions were conteyned (for as moche as there were in them many thynges flraunge and

not fully declared, and were more mete for fecrete communycacyon of lerned men then for open herynge of commune people, whiche for lacke of connynge myght take hurte therby) Picus defyred hym felfe y* hit fholde not be redde. And foo was the redynge therof forboden.

Lo

this

ende had Picus of his hye mynde and proud pur-

pofe,

where he thought to have goten perpetual prayfe there had he moche werke to kepe hymfelfe that he ranne not in perpetual infamye and upryght
that
:

fclaundre.

OF THE CHAUNGE OF HIS LYFE.

nevewe he judged y this came thus to paffe by the efpeciall provifion and fynguler goodne&of almyghty God, that by this fals cryme untruely put upon hym by his evyll wyllers he sholde correcte his very errours, and that this fholde be to hym (wanderynge in derkenes) as a fhynynge lyght in whiche he myght beholde & confydre how ferre he had gone out of y e waye of trouth. For before this he had bene bothe defyrous of glory and kyndled in vayne love and holden in volupteoufe ufe of women. The comelynes of his body with the lovely favoure of his vyfage, and
But as

hym

felfe tolde his

:

merveyldufe fame, his excellent lernynge, grete rycheffe and noble kyndred, fet many women a fyre on hym, frome y e defyre of whome he not abhorrynge (y e
all

therwith

his

waye
neffe.

of lyfe fet a fyde) was fom what fallen in to wantonBut after that he was ones with this variaunce
his

wakened he drewe backe

turned hit to Chryft,
into y
e

mynde flowynge

in riot

&

womens blandimentes he chaunged

defyre of hevenly joyes, difpifynge the blafte of vaynglorye which he before defyred, now with all his mynde he began to feke the glory and profyte of

&

Chryftes chyrche, and fo began he to ordre his condycions y from thens forth he myght have ben approved
l

&

thoughe

his

enemye were

his judge.

OF THE FAME OF HIS VERTUE AND THE RESORTE UNTO HYM THERFORE.
Here upon
fhortly the

fame of
12

his noble

connynge and

& nygh began gloryoufly to which many worthy philofophres (& that fprynge were taken in nombre of the mooft connynge) reforted
excellent vertue bothe ferre
for

bifely unto

good doclryne, fome for to move queflions and dyfpute, fome (that were of more godly mynde) to here and to take the holefome leffons and inftruccyon of good lyvynge whiche leffons e were fo moche y more fet by in how moche they came from a more noble man and a more wyfe man and hym e alfo whiche had hym felfe fome tyme folowed y croked

hym

as to a market of

delycyoufe pleafure. To the faftenynge of good e dyfcyplyne in the myndes of y herers those thynges feme to be of grete effecte whiche be bothe of theyr owne
hilles of
:

nature good alfo be fpoken of fuche a mafter as is converted to the way of juftyce from the croked ragged

&

&

path of voluptuoufe lyvynge.

THE BURNYNG OF WANTON BOKES.

Fyve bokes
:

that in his youthe of

wanton

verfis of love in his

with other lyke fantafies he had

made

vulgar

tongue all togyther (in deteftacyon of his vyce paffed) and left thefe tryfles myght be fome evyll occafyon afterwarde, he burned them.

OF HIS STUDY AND DILYGENCE IN HOLY SCRYPTURE. From thensforth he gave him felfe day & nyght mooft
fervently to the ftudyes of fcrypture, in whiche he wrote many noble bokes whiche well teftyfye bothe his angylyke
:

and his profounde erudicyon, of whiche bokes some we have & fome as an ineftimable
wyt, his ardent laboure,
treafure

we have

lofte.

to confydre with

how

Grete lybraries hit is incredible merveloufe celeryte he red them

and wrote out what hym liked of y e olde fathers of e y chyrch, fo gret knowlege he had as hit were harde for hym to have y* hath lyved longe & all his lyfe hath
over,
:

done nothyng
fo

els

but red them.

l t

Of thefe newer dyvynes

good jugement he had y it myght appere there were nothynge in ony of them y were unknowen to him, but all thynge as rype as though he had all theyr werkes ever
before his eyen, but of
in a fure piller of truth.
in difpicions
all

thefe
8

new do6lours he

fpecyally

commendeth Saynt Thomas

as

hym

y enforfeth
r

hym felfe
t

He was very quick, wife, & fubtyl

&

hye ftomak.

had grete felicite therin w hile he had y But now a grete while he had bode fuche
:

and every daye more & more hated them, and fo gretely abhored them that when Hercules Eftenfis Duke of Ferrare 9 fyrft by meffengers and after
conflicles farewell
:

by hym felfe defyred hym to difpute at Ferrare bycaufe the generall chapytre of freres prechours was holden there longe hit was or he coude be brought therto but
: :
: :

at the inftant requeft of the

Duke whiche very

fyngulerly

loved him he came thyder, where he fo behaved hym e felfe y was wondre to beholde how all y audyence
l

rejoyced to here hym, for hit were not poffyble for a man to utter neyther more connynge nor more connyngely. But hit

was a commune fayenge with hym y fuche altercacyons were for a logition and not metely for a phylofophre,
t

he fayd also that suche difputacyons gretely profited as were exercifed with a peafyble mynde to th'enferchynge

company without grete audyence but he fayd that thofe difpicions dyd grete hurte y* were holden openly to th'oftentacion of lernynge & to wynne the favoure of the commune people & the commendacyon
of the treuth in fecrete
of fooles.

He thought that utterly hit coulde unneth be but

that with the defyre of worfhyp (whiche thefe gafynge

dyfputers gape after) there is with an infeparable bonde rebuke whome annexed the appetite of his confufyon

&

they argue with, whiche appetyte is a dedly wounde to y There was nothing foule, & a mortal! poyfon to charite.
paffed

hym

of thofe capicions foteltes

&

cavilacions of
1

fophyftrye, nor agayn

there

was nothyng y he more

hated

& abhored, confyderyng

e

but to y

fhamyng moche better lerned and fcyence

and
y*

that they ferved of nought of fuche other folke as were in very

in thofe trifles ignoraunt
e
:

unto th'enfercherchynge of y treuth

lytell

(to

which he

gave contynuall laboure) they profyted

or nought.

OF HIS LERNYNGE UNYVERSALLY.

But bycaufe we wyll holde the reder no longer in hande we wyll fpeke of his lernynge but a worde or twayne
:

generally.

Some man hathe fhyned in eloquence, but igno rance of naturall thynges hathe difhonefled hym. Some man hath floured in the knowledge of dyvers ftraunge

languages, but he hath wanted all the cognicion of philoSome man hath redde the invencyons of the fophye.
olde philofophres, but he hath not ben exercifed in the new fcoles. Some man hath fought connynge as well
philofophie as dyvinite for prayfe and vayneglorye and not for ony profyte or encreace of Chryftes chyrche. But

these thynges with equall ftudy hath fo receyved y they myght feme by hepis as a plentyoufe ftreme to have flowen in to hym. For he was not of y e condycion

Pycus
l

all

of fome folke (which to be excellent in one thynge fet al other afyde) but he in all fciences profyted fo excellently
:

that which of

ever he had confydered, in him ye wolde have thought y he had taken that one for his onely

theym
all

fo
l

ftudye.

And

thefe thynges
in
l

were

in

hym

fo

moche
felfe

the

more merveloufe

y he came therto by
15

hym

e with y ftrength of his owne wytte for the love of God and profyte his chyrche without mayfters, fo that we may faye

of

hym
his

that

Epycure the philofophre fayd of hym that he

was

owne mayfter. 10

FYVE CAUSES Y T IN SO SHORTE TYME BROUGHT HYM TO SE MERVELOUSE CONNYNGE.

To
fyrft

fmall

the bryngynge forth of fo wondreful effecles in fo tyme I confidre fyve caufes to have come togyder
:

an incredyble wyt, fecondely a merveyloufe faft e memore, thyrdely grete fubftaunce by y which to y

byenge of his bokes as wel laten as greke & other tonges he was efpecyally holpen. VIJ.M. ducates he had
layde out in the gaderynge to gyther of volumes of all maner of litterature. The fourth caufe was his befy and
infatigable ftudy.

The

fyfte

was the contempt difpyfynge

of

all

erthly thynges.

OF HIS CONDYCYONS AND HIS VERTUE.

us paffe over thofe powers of his foule which let us fpeke appertayne to underftondynge knowledge 1 e them to of noble of acles, let us y achevynge y belonge
let

But now

&

&

as

declare his excellent condicions y his mynde enflamed to Godwarde may appere, and his riches gyven

we can

out to poore folke may be underftonde, th'entent y* they whiche mall heere his vertue may have occafyon therby to gyve efpeciall laude thanke to almyghty God, of

&

whofe infynyte goodneffe

all

grace and vertue cometh.

OF THE SALE OF HIS LORDESHYPPES

AND ALMYSSE.
Thre yere before
his deth (to th'ende that all the charge

16

befynes of rule or lordfhyp fet a fyde he myght lede his lyfe in reft and peace, wele confyderynge to what ende
worldly dignite cometh) all his patrymonye and dominyons y is to fay the thyrde parte of th'erldome of Mirandula and of Concordia unto Johan
this
l
:

&

erthely honour

&

Francis his nevewe he folde, and that fo good chepe that 11 All that ever he hit femed rather a gyft then a fale.

bargayne partly he gave out to poore e in y byenge of a lytell londe, he beftowed folke, partely fyndynge of hym & his houfholde. And over y moche
receyved of
this
1
:

fylver veffell

&

plate with other precyoufe

&

coftly uten-

files of howfholde he devyded amonge poore people. He was content with meane fare at his table, how be hit fomwhat yet reteynynge of y e olde plenty in deynty vyande

& fylver veffel.

hym
plentioufly

Every daye

at certayne houres he

gave

felfe to prayer.

To

gave out his gyve that he had hym felf redy

pore men alway yf ony came he money & not content onely to
:
:

he wrote over
e

y* to

one

Hierom Benivenius 12 a
for his grete love

florentin, a well letred

man (whom

y integrite of his condycions he fingulerly favored) y he fholde with his owne

towarde

hym

&
1

gyve maydens money and fende him worde what he alway maryage had layde out that he myght paye hit him ageyn. This c offyce he commytted to hym that he might y more eafely
:

money ever helpe poore

to theyre
:

folke

&

by hym

as

by a

faythful meffenger releve

neceffyte

&

miferi of poore

nedy people fuche as

e

hym

felfe

happely

coude not come by y knowlege

of.

OF Y E VOLUNTARY AFFLECCION NING OF HIS OWN BODY.

Over
all

PAY-

times (whiche is not to be kepte we knowe fecrete) he gave almes of his owne body
this
:

many

17

many men which

hande
to

(as

Saynt Hierom
:

I3

fayth) put forth theyr

e poore folke but with the plefure of y flesfhe they be overcomen but he many days](and namely 14 thofe e dayes whiche reprefent unto us y paffyon & deth y
:

Chryfte fuffred for our fake) bet and fcourged his owne flefhe in the remembraunce of that grete benefyte and for
clenfynge of his olde offences.

OF HIS PLACABILITE OR BENYGNE NATURE. He was of chere alwaye mery & of fo benygne nature y* he was never troubled with angre & he fayd ones to his
ever fholde happen (fell ther never fo grete myfadventure) he coude never as hym thought be moved to wrath but yf his chyftes peryfshed in
that
fo

nevew

what

whiche

his

bokes laye
:

y*

he had with grete trauayle

&

watche compiled but for as moche as he confydered y* he laboured onely for y e love of God & profyte of his chyrche & y* he had dedicate unto him all his werkes,
:

his ftudyes

&

his

doynges

&

fith

he fawe

y* fyth

God

is

almyghty they coulde not mifcarye but yf it were eyther by his commaundement or by his fufferaunce he veryly trufted fyth God is all good y he wolde not fuffre hym
:

to

have that occafion of hevynes. O very happy mynde which none adverfyte myght oppreffe, which no profperyte might enhaunce not the connynge of all philo:

was able to make hym proude, not the know arabie language befyde of the hebrewe, chaldey ledge greke and laten coulde make hym vayngloryouse, not his grete fubflaunce, not his noble blode, coulde blowe up his
fophie

&

herte, not y

e beauty of his body, not y grete occafyon of

fynne were able to pull hym bak in to y voluptuoufe brode way y* ledeth to helle what thynge was ther of fo
:

18

mervayloufe ftrength y might overtorne y mynde of hym which now (as Seneke fayth) was goten above fortune I5 as
:

he ;which as well her favoure as her malice hath fet at nought, y* he myght be coupled with a fpiritull knot unto
Chryfte and his hevenly cytezeynes.

HOW HE ESCHEWED
Whan
fyre

DYGNITES.

he fawe

many men with

e

grete labour

& money dec

byfely purchafe y offices dygnites of y chirche e now a are alas (whiche dayes y whyle communely bought
folde)

&

&

&

him

felfe
:

refufed to recyve

them whan two

offred

kynges offred them

whan an other man

hym

e grete worldely promocyon yf he wolde go to y kynges courte: he gave hym fuche an anfwere, that he fholde

that he neyther defyred worfhip ne worldly but rather fet them at nought y he might y e more ryches

well

knowe

quyetly gyve

hym

felfe to
l

ftudy

&y

fervyce of

God

this

wyfe he perfuaded, y to a phylofophre and hym y' feketh for wyfedome it was no prayfe to gather rycheffe but to
refufe them.

OF THE DISPYSYNGE OF WORLDLY GLORYE.

All prayfe of people and
for
e
:

erthlyglorye he reputed utterly but in nothyng y renayeng of this fhadowe of glory he laboured for very glorye which ever more foloweth vertue
all

as an unfeparable fervaunt.

He fayd that fame often tymes

dyd

hurte to

be deed.
e

never good whan they they ly ve, So moche onely fet he by his lernynge in how
that hit

men while

&

moche he knewe

was profytable

to y extermynation of errours.

And

chyrche & over that he was

to y
e
:

come to that prycke of perfyte humilite that he lytell forced wyther his workes went out under his owne name or not fo that they might as moche profite as yf they
19

And nowe fet he were gyven oute under his name. e c in y onely lytel by ony other bokes fave onely y bible, ftudi of which he had appoynted hym felfe to fpende
the refedewe of his
lyfe,
e favynge that y

commune

profyte

pricked him whan he confydered fo many & fo grete werkes as he had conceyved & longe travayled upon howe they were of every man by and by 16 defyred and

loked

after.

HOW MOCHE HE SET MORE

The
lytell

BY DEVOCYON
woman
:

THAN CONNYNGE.
affeccyon of an olde

man
he

or an olde
fet

to

Godwarde (were it never all his owne knowlege

godly.

fo fmall)

more by then by

as well of naturall thynges as

And

oftentymes in communicacyon he wolde

admonyfshe

his familyar frendes

how
:

gretly thefe mortall

thynges bowe and drawe to an ende, howe flyper & how fallynge hit is y we lyve in now how ferme how ftable
1

it

mall be

y*

we

fhal here after lyve in,

whether we be
heven.

throwen downe

in to hell or lyfte

up

in to

Wherto love

fore he exhorted

them

to turne

up theyr myndes

God, which was a thynge

y*
is

farre excellynge all the

connynge

poffible for us in this lyfe to obtaine.

alfo in his

The fame

thynge

boke whiche he entytled De Ente et Uno lyghtfomely he treateth where he interupteth y e courfe of his difpicion and turnynge his wordes to Angelus
Politianus (to
in this wyfe.

whom

he dedycateth that boke) he wryteth But now beholde o my welbeloved Angell

us.
:

what madnes holdeth

body) we
our
felfe,

Love God

(while

we be

in this

rather

maye

than eyther knowe him or by

fpeche utter

hym.

we

In lovyng him alfo we more profyte laboure leffe & ferve hym more, & yet had

we

lever alwaye

by knowlege never fynde y thynge that

20

then by love to poffede y thynge whiche alfo without love were in vayne founde. 17
feke
l
:

we

OF HIS LIBERALITE & CONTEMPT OF

RYCHESSE.
paffed meafure for fo ferre was he from y begynnyng of ony diligence to erthely thynges that he femed fom what befprent with the frekyll of
Liberalite onely in
e

hym

negligence. His frendes often tymes admonyfhed hym that he fholde not all utterly difpyce rycheffe, fhewynge hym y* hit was his difhonefte and rebuke whan it was reported

treue or falfe) that his negligence fettyng his of fervauntes occafyon difceyt nought by money gave his Nevertheles that of mynde robbry. (which ever

(were

it

&

&

more on hyghe cleved

fail in

contemplacion

&

in th'en-

ferchynge of natures counfel) coulde never let downe hit e felfe to y confideracion and overfeynge of thefe bafe

His hygh ftuarde came defyred hym to receyve his accomt of fuche money as he had in many yeres receyved of his and brought forth his bokes of rekenynge. Picus anfwered hym in this wyfe, my frende (fayth he) I knowe
abjecle and vyle erthly tryfles.
to

on a tyme
:

hym &

well ye have

mought oftentimes and yet may defceyve

me and
penfes

ye

fhall

wherfore the examinacyon of thefe exnot nede. There is no more to do, yf I be

lyft,
I

ought

in

your det
:

mail pay you by

&
:

8 by/ yf ye be

in

myn pay me eyther now ye be now not able.

yf ye have hit

or here after yf

OF HIS LOVYNGE MYNDE & VERTUOUSE BEHAVOUR TO HIS FRENDES. His lovers and frendes with grete benygnite & curtefye
he entreted,

whom

he ufed

in all fecrete

communinge

verfo

tuoufly to exhorte to

Godward, whofe goodely wordes

21

where a connynge man (but not fo good as connynge) came to him on a e daye for y grete fame of his lernyng to commune with hym, as they fell in talkynge of vertue he was with the wordes of Picus fo throughly perced that forth with all he forfoke his accuflomed vyce and reformed his coneffectually

wrought

in

herers y

dicyons.

The wordes y he
t

yf we hadde ever more

fayd unto hym were thefe e before our eyen y paynful deth
:

of Chryft which he fuffred for the love of us and than yf we wolde agayne thynke upon our deth we fholde wele
: :

beware of fynne.

Merveyloufe benignyte
:

(hewed unto them

not

whom

ftrength of

curtefy he body or goodes

&

of fortune magnified but to them whom lernynge & condicions bounde hym to favoure for fimylytude of maners
:

is

a caufe of love

&

frendefhyp.

likenes of condicions
19

is (as

Appollonius fayth) an

affinyte.

WHAT HE HATED AND WHAT HE

LOVED.

There was nothyng more odioufe nor more intolirable to 30 hym than as (Horace fayth) y proud palaces of ilately lordes weddynge and worldly befynes he fled almooft a lyke notwithftondynge whan he was axed ones in fporte whyther of thofe two burdeynes femed lyghter & whiche
:
:

he wolde chefe yf he fholde of neceffite be dryven to that one and at his eleccyon whiche he Hiked thereat a wyle but at y e laft he fhoke his heed and a lytell fmylyng he
:

anfwered

y*

he had lever take

hym

to maryage, as y

thynge in whiche was leffe fervytude & not fo moche jeoperdy. Lyberte above all thynge he loved, to which
both his owne natural affeccon

&

e y ftudy of phylofophy

enclyned
flytynge

hym

&

for y*

&

wolde never take

22

was he alwaye wanderyng & hym felfe to ony certayne

d welly nge. 21

OF HIS FERVENT LOVE TO GOD.

obfervaunces he gave no very grete force we fpeke not of thofe obfervaunces which the chyrche commaundeth to be obferved, for in thofe he was dilygent but

Of outward

we fpeke
fayth) to

of thofe cerymonyes which folke brynge up e fettynge y very fervyce of God a fyde, which is (as Chryft

be worfhipped

in fpirite

&

in treuth.

But

in

the inwarde affectes of the

mynde he cleved to
:

God

with

very fervent love and devocyon

fome tyme that merveloufe alacrite langwyfshed and almooft fell, and efte agayne with grete flrength rofe up in to God. In the love of whome he fo fervently burned that on a tyme as he walked with Johan Frauncis his nevewe in an orcharde
y talkynge of the love of Chryft he brake out in to thefe wordes, nevew, fayd he, this wyll I fhewe the, I warne the kepe it fecrete the fubftaunce y* I have
at Farrare, in
:

certayne bokes of myne finyfshed I entende to out to pore folke, gyve fencynge my felfe with the crucifyx, bare fote walkynge about the worlde, in every
lefte after

&

towne and caftell I purpofe to preche of Chryft. After ward e I underftande by the efpecyall commaundement

God he chaunged feffe hym felfe in the

of

that purpofe

and appoynted

to pro-

ordre of freres prechours.

OF HIS DETH.
In y e yere of our redempcion, M.CCCC.xCiiii.
e

whan he

had fulfylled y xxxii. yere of his age & abode at Florence, he was fodenly taken with a fervent axes 22 which fo ferforth crepte in to
e

interiori pertes of his

body, y hit

medycynes & overcame all remedy, and compelled him within thre dayes to fatisfye nature and e repaye her y lyfe whiche he receyved of her.
dyfpyfed
all

23

OF HIS BEHAVYOUR IN THE EXTREMES OF HIS LYFE.

After that he hadde receyved the holy body of our Savyour whan they offred unto hym the crucyfyx (y in the ymage of Chryftes ineffable paffion fuffred for oure
l

ere he gave up the ghoft receyve his love and compaffyon in the beholdynge of of draught that pytefull figure as a ftronge defence agaynft all

fake he
full

myght

adverfyte and a fure port culioufe againfl wikked fpirites) the preeft demaunded hym whether he fermly beleved y*

crucyfyx to be the Image of

hym

that

was very God

before
all

&

very

man
:

whiche

in his
:

Godhed was

time

begoten of his father to whome he is alfo equall in all e thynge and whiche of y Holy Ghofh God alfo of hym & of the Father coeternalli goynge forth (whiche .iij. per:

fones be one God)

perpetuall virgyne

was

in

e y chafte

wombe
time
:

of our lady a

conceyved

in

which

fuffred
:

and whiche

watche hungre, thruft, hete, colde, laboure, travayle, at the lafte for wafshynge of our fpotty fynne

&

contracted and drawen unto us in the fynne of Adame, for the foveraigne love that he had to mankynde, in the
aulter of the croffe wyllyngely

mooft precyoufe blode.

When

gladly fhedde out his y preeft enquyred of him

e

&

thefe thynges fuche other as they be wonte to enquere of folke in fuche cafe, Picus anfwered hym y l he not

&

Whan y* onely beleved hit but alfo certaynly knewe it. 23 one Albertus his fyfters fone a yonge man both of wit,
:

connynge,

hym why
l

condicyons excellent began to conforte & natural reafon to fhewe hym by agaynft deth hit was not to be fered but ftrongely to be taken as
:

&

y onely thynge which maketh an ende of

payne, trouble,

all

y laboure,
deedly

&

forowe of

this fhort miferable

24

lyfe

was not the cheyefe thyng y* fholde make hym content to dye bycaufe y deth determyneth the manyfolde incommoditees and paynfull
:

he anfwered y

this

wretchednes of this

life

but rather this caufe fholde

:

make hym not content onely but alfo glad to dye for that deth maketh an ende of fynne in as moche as he e trufled y fhortnes of his lyfe fholde leve hym no fpace
:

and offende. He afked alfo all his fervauntes forgyvenes, yf he had ever before that daye offended ony of them. For whom he had provyded by his teftament viij. yeres before, for fome of them mete and drynk, for fome money, eche of them after theyr defervynge. He fhewed
to fynne
alfo to the
l

above named Albertus

e

& many other credible

l perfons y y quene of heven came to hym y nyght with a mervayloufe fragrant odour refrefshynge all his membres 24 frufshed with that fever, promyfed y were brofed
l

&

&

mold not utterly dye. He lay alwaye with a plefaunt and a mery countenaunce, and in the verye twytches and panges of deth he fpake as though he behelde y hevens opene. And all y* came to hym &
him
that he
e

faluted

hym

offerynge theyr fervyce with very lovyng

wordes he receyved, thanked, & kyffed. The executour 25 of his moveable goodes he made one Antony his brother.

The heyer

of his landes he

made

y pore people of the

hofpytall of Florence.

And

in this

wyfe

in to

e y handes

of oure Savyoure he gave up his fpiryte.

HOW
What
worlde was
tefhyfyeth
:

HIS

DETH WAS TAKEN.

:

forowe and hevynes his departyng out of this both to ryche and pore, hygh & lowe well

the prynces of Italye, well wytneffeth the citees people, well recordeth the grete benygnyte and 26 fynguler curtefye of Charles kynge of Fraunce, which as E 25

&

he came to Florence, entendynge from thens to Rome and fo forth in his vyage agaynft the Realme of Naples,
herynge of the fykenes of Picus, in all convenyent hafte he fent hym two of his owne phificions as embaffiatours
both to
vifet

hym and

to

do

and over that fent unto letters fubfcribed with his owne hande full of fuche humanyte and courteyfe
offres as the

hym hym

all

y helpe they myght

benevolent

mynde

of fuche a noble prince

and the worthy vertues of Picus required.

OF THE STATE OF HIS SOULE.

After his deth (and not longe after) Hieronimus 27 a frere prechour of Ferrare, a man as well in connynge as

holynes of lyvynge mooft famous, in a fermone whiche he reherced in the cheyfe chyrche of all Florence fayd unto the people in this wyfe. O thou Cyte of Florence

have a fecrete thynge to fhewe the which is as true as y gofpell of Saynt Johan. I wolde have kept hit fecrete but I am compelled to fhewe hit. For he that hathe
I
e

commaunde me, hath byd me publyfshe hit. fuppofe veryly that there be none of you but ye knewe Johan Picus Erie of Mirandula, a man in whom God had
aucloryte to
I
e heped many grete gyftes and fynguler graces, y chyrche had of hym an ineilymable loffe, for I fuppofe yf he myght

have had the fpace of his lyfe prorogyd he fholde have excelled (by fuche workes as he fhold have lefte behynde all them this .viii.C. before him. He hym) y dyed yere
:

was wonte

to be converfaunt with
:

me and

to breke to

me y

fecretes of his herte in whiche I perceyved that he was by privey infpyracion called of God unto relygion. Wherfore he purpofed oftentymes to obey this infpyraHowbehit not beynge cyon and folowe his callynge.

kynde ynoughe

for fo grete benefices of

God

or called

26

bak by the tendernes of his flefshe (as he was a man of delicate complexion) he fhranke frome the laboure, or thinkynge happely y' the religion had no nede of hym
differred
it
28

for a tyme,

howbehit

this
I

conjecture.

But
l
:

for this delaye

I fpeke onely by thretened hym two

y he wolde be punyfshed yf he foryere togyther flowthed that purpofe which our Lorde had put in his certeynely I prayed to God my felfe (I wyll not mynde,

&

lye

therfore)

that he

hym to above mewed hym. But I defyred not this fcourge upon hym y' he was beten with I loked not for that but
compell
:
:

myght be fom what beten to take that waye whiche God had from
:

oure Lorde hadde fo decreed that he fholde forfake this

prefent lyfe and leve a parte of that noble crowne that he e fholde have had in heven. Notwithftondyng y moil

benygne juge hath

dalt mercyfully with

him

and

for his

plentyoufe almes gyven out with a free and liberall hande unto poore people & for the devout prayers whiche he mooft inflantly offred unto God this favoure he

hath

though his foule be not yet

in the
:

in the
hit not

bofome of oure
on
y*

hevenly joye yet unto perpetual payne, but he deputed

Lorde

is

other fyde
for

is

adjuged

whyle to the fyre of purgatory, there to fuffre payne for a e feafon, which I am y gladder to fhewe you in this by& fuche to the entent y they which knewe hym halfe
l
: :

infpecially as for his

manyfolde benyfyces are fingulerly

fholde

beholden unto him

now with

theyr prayers, almes,

this holy

other fuffrages helpe hym. man Hierom, this fervaunt of

alfo

&

Thefe thynges

God

openly affermed, and

in that place
:

fayde that he

knew wel

if

he lyed

he

were worthy eternall dampnacion. And over y* he fayd a certain y* he had knowen all thofe thinges wythin e tyme, but y wordes which Picus had fayde in his fykenes
27

to fere of y aperyng of our lady caufed him to doubt e left Picus had ben deceyved by fome illufyon of y

&

devyll

in as

moch

as the promyfe of our lady

his dethe
:

femed

to

have ben
ftode y
l

fruflrate

by

but afterward he undere

Picus was deceyved in the equivocacyon of y ever lafhyng worde whyle fhe fpake of y e feconde deth

&

he undertoke her
after this
l

of y

fyrft

& deth &

temporall.

y fame Hierom fhewed to his acquayntaunce y Picus had after his deth apered unto him all compaced in fire & fhewed unto him y he was fuch wife
l

And

in

purgatorye punyfhed for his neglygence

&

his unl

Now fyth hit is fo that he is adjuged to y kyndnes. from which he fhal undoubtedly depart unto glory fyre

&
e

no man

is

fure

how

longe hit fhalbe

:

fyrft

& may be
e

y fhorter tyme for our interceffyons let every chryften body fhewe theyr charite upon hym to helpe to fpede
thyder where after the longe habitacion with y inhabytauntes of this derke worlde (to whom his goodly e converfacion gave grete lyght) & after y darke fyre of

hym

purgatory (in whiche venyall offences be clenfed) he may e fhortly (yf he be not all redy) entre y inacceffible & in
finite light

of heven

where he may

in
l

e y prefence of y e

foveraygne Godhed fo praye for us y we may y rather by his interceffion be perteyners of y infpecable joy
l

which we have prayed to bryng hym fpedely to. Amen. Here endeth y e lyfe of Johan Picus Erie of Mirandula.

Here foloweth

thre epiftles

ofy fayd Picus

of which thre

two be wry ten unto Johan Fraunfces his nevew, the thyrde unto one Andrewe Corneus

a noble

man of

Italy.

28

THE ARGUMENT & MATER OF THE FYRST EPYSTLE OF PICUS UNTO HIS NEVEW JOHAN FRAUNSCES.
Hit apereth by this epiftle y* Johan Fraunfces the nevew of Picus had broken his mynde unto Picus and had made

hym of counceyll

in

fome

fecrete godly purpofe

:

whiche he

entended to take upon hym but what this purpofe fholde be upon this lettre can we not fully perceyve. Nowe after y* he thus entended, there fell unto hym many

impedimentes

&

divers occafyons whiche withftode his

entent and in maner letted

hym

&

pulled

hym

bak,

wherfore Picus comforteth

hym in this epyftle and exorteth

in the epyftle

hym

to perfeveraunce,

by fuch meanes as are

e evydent and playne ynough. Notwithftondynge in y begynnyng of this lettre where he fayth that the flefhe

mail (but yf we take good hede) make us dronke in the cuppes of Cerces and myfshappe us in to the lykenes fygure of bruyte beeftes thofe wordes yf ye perceyve

&

theym not be in this wyfe underftonden. There was fomtyme a woman called Circes whiche by enchauntemente as Vyrgyll maketh mencyon ufed with a drynke to
turne as
as receyved hit in to dyvers likenes fygures of fondrye beeftes, fome in to lyones, fome in to beeres, fome in to fwyne, fome in to wolfes, which

many men

&

after warde

walked ever tame aboute her houfe and way ted

upon her in fuche ufe or fervyce as fhe

lyft to put unto them. e In lykewyfe the flefshe yf it make us dronke in y wyne of voluptuous pleafure or make the foule leve the noble

ufe of his reafon

of y

body
y*

& enclyne unto fenfualite and affeccions then the flefshe chaungeth us from the figure
men
:

of reafonable

in the

and

dyverfly

lykenes of unreafonable beeftes, after the convenience fymylytude

&

29

betwene our

fenfuall affeccyons
:

prytees of fondry beetles to a lyon, the irous in to a beere, the lecheroufe in to a

gote, the

and the brutyfshe proas the proude harted man in

dronken gloten

in

to a fwyne, the ravenous

falfe

extorcyoner in to a wolfe, the

foxe,

defceyvoure in to a

mokkynge gefter in to an ape. From which beeftly fhappe may we never be reftored to our owne lykenes agayn unto the tyme we have caft up agayne the drynke of the bodely affeccyons by which we were in to thefe
:

fygures

enchaunted.

Whan

there

cometh fomtyme a
are glad to

monftrouse beeft to the towne

we ronne and
:

paye fome money to have fyght therof, but I fere yf men wolde loke upon them felfe advyfedly they fholde fe a

more monftroufe
perceyve themfelfe
beeftly paffyons

beeft

for they fholde home wretched inclinacion to divers by y

nerer

chaunged

in

theyr foule not in to the fhap

l

of one but of

many

beeftes,

is

to faye of all

them whofe

Let us then beware as brutyfh appetytes they folow. e t Picus councelleth us y we be not dronken in y cuppes of e e Cerces, y* is to fay in y fenfuall affeccions of y flefsh,

we deforme y image of God in our foules, after whofe image we be made, & make our felfe worfe then idolatres, for yf he be odioufe to God whiche turneth y image of a beeft in to god how moche is he more odious which torneth the ymage of God in to a beeft.
left
e e
:

JOHAN PICUS ERLE OF MIRANDULA TO JOHAN FRAUNSCES HIS NEVEW BY HIS

BROTHER HELTH IN HYM THAT VERY HELTH.

evyll

IS

That thou hast had many

departynge which trouble the 30

&

occafyons after thy flonde agaynft the veris

tuoufe purpofe that thou haft taken there

no caufe

my

fone

why

therfore, or drede
this yf onely to

thou fholdeft eyther mervayle therof, be fory hit, but rather how grete a wondre were
e

amonge

mortall

men
l

way

laye

open to heven with out fwet, as though y now at erft the difceytfull worlde & the curfed devyll fayled, & as
e thoughe thou were not yet in y flefshe and which falfe agaynft the fpyrite
: :

which coveyteth
flefsh (but

yf

we
e

watche

&

loke wel to our

felf) fhal

make

us dronke in y

cuppes of Circes

&

fo

deforme us

in to

monftrous fhappes

Remembre alfo that of brutyfsh unreafonable beeftes. of thefe evyll occafyons the holy apoftle faynt James fayth thou haft caufe to be glad, writynge in this wyfe. Gaudete
fratres

&

quum

fayth he my and not caufeles

Be glad temptationes varias incideritis. brethren whan ye fall in dy vers temptacions,

in
:

is there of glorye yf there or what be none hope of viclorye place is there for he is called to the vi6lory where there is no batayl

for

what hope
:

crowne & triumphe whiche

namely to that
againft his will,

conflycl:

in

provoked to the conflycle & which no man may be overcom

is

&
y*

in

which we nede none other ftrength to

l

vaynquyfsh but

happy
his

is

we lyft our felfe to vaynquifsh. Very e chriften man fyth y y victory is bothe put in
:

owne
e

fre wyll

&

farre greter than

I

we
:

the rewarde of the vyclory fhal be can eyther hope or wyfshe. Tell me
if

pray y
all

my

mooft dere fone

e

ther be ought in this

fo

life

of

thofe thingis

delite

wherof
I

vexeth and

toffith
:

thefe erthly myndes.

e

Is ther

fay oni of thofe

fuffre

trifles

in

y geting of which a man muft not

many

labours

many miferies or he get hit. The many difpleafurs marchaunt thinkith him felfe well ferved if after yeres

&

a m. incommoditees, after a m. jeopardyes of his lyfe he may at laft have a litle the more gadered to Of the court fervyce of this worlde there is gyther.
failing, after

&

nothyng y' I nede to wryte unto the, the wretchednes wherof

the experience hit felfe hath taught the dayly techeth. In obtaynyng y e favour of y e prynces, in purchafynge the e frendfhyp of y company in ambicyoufe labour for offyces

&

&

honoures what an hepe of hevynes there

:

is

how

trouble I may grete anguifsh how moche befynes e rather lerne of the then teche y whiche holdyng my felf content with my bokes refte, of a chylde have lerned
,

&

to

& lyve within my degree & as moche as I maye dwellynge

my felfe nothynge out of my felf labour for, or longe Now then thefe erthly thynges flyper, uncertayne,

with
for.

vyle

& commune
fhall

alfo to us

pantynge we

and bruyte beeft fwetynge unneth obtayne and loke we than

:

&
to

hevenly thynges & goodly (whiche neyther eye hath feen nor ere hath herde nor herte hath thought) to be drawen
flumbry

God
us.

flepyng magrey our teth as though neyther myght reygne nor thofe hevenly citezyns lyve without Certaynely if this worldly felicite were goten to us
:
:

&

with ydelnes and eafe than myght fomeman that fhrynketh frome labour rather chefe to ferve y e worlde then God.

But now yf we be

moche
tatis.

as in

waye of fynne as the way of God and moche more (wherof the
:

fo labored in the

dampned wretches crye out

Laffati

fumus

in via iniqui-

We
it

muft

be weryed in the waye of wyckednes) then nedes be a poynte of extreme madnes yf we had

not lever labour there where

then where

we go from labour to rewarde I paffe over from we go labour to payne.

how man

grete peace

&

felycite hit is to the

mynde whan a

hath nothinge that grudgeth his confcience nor is not appaled with the fecrete twiche of ony prevye cryme. This
pleafure undoubtedly farre excelleth all y pleafurs y in this lyfe may be obteyned or defyred what thyng is
:

there to be defyred

amonge y
32

delytes of this worlde

which
in
e

in

y fekynge wery
us.

y lefyng payneth

y havynge blyndeth us, Doubteft thou my fone whether

e

us, in

the

myndes of wycked men be vexed or not with contynuall thought and torment hit is y worde of God whiche Cor impij quafi neyther maye deceyve nor be deceyved. mare fervens quod quiefcere non potefl. The wycked mannes herte is lyke a ftormy fee y maye not reft, there
:

is

to

hym nothynge

fure,

nothyng pefeable, but

all

all

thynge

ferefull, all

thinge forowfull,
:

thyng deedly.
:

Shall

we

then envye thefe men fhall we folow them & forgetynge our owne countre heven, & our owne hevenly Father where

we were
theyr

free

borne
:

fhall

we
e

wylfully

make our

felfe

bondemen

&

with them wretchedly lyvyng more

at

laft mooft wretchedly in be O the derke myndes of punifshed. everlaftyng fyre men. O the blynde hertes. Who feyth not more clere

wretchedly dye

and

than lyght that all thefe thynges be (as they fey) truer than trueth hit felfe, yet do we not that y we knowe is In vayne we wolde pluk our fote out of the to be done.

&

clay but

we
hit

ftyk

ftyll.

There

fhall

come

to the

my
:

fone
art

doubte

not

(in thefe places

namely where thou

converfaunt) innumerable impedimentes every hour which myght fere the frome the purpofe of good and vertuoufe

lyvynge

&

(but yf thou be ware) fhall throwe the

downe

But amonge all thynges the very deedly hedlynge. to be converfaunt daye and nyght peflylence is this among them whofe lyfe is not onely on every fyde an
:

fynne but over that all fet in the expugnacion of vertue, under theyr capitayne the devyll, under the banayre of deth, under the ftipende of hell, fightynge
allecliyve to
:

agaynfl heven, agaynft our Lorde God and agaynft his e Chrift. But crye thou therfore with y prophete. Dirumpamus vincula eorum & projiciamus a nobis iugum ipforum.

33

-F

Let us breke the bandes of them and let us caft of the yooke
of them. Thefe be they whom (as y glorioufe apoftle Saynt Paule feith) our Lorde hath delyvered in to the paffyons of
e

rebuke and to a reprovable fenfe to do thofe thynges that

are not convenyente,
full

of

all iniquite, full

:

flaughter, contencion, gyle, & malice

of envye, manbackbiters, odioufe to

God, contumelioufe, proude, ftately, fynders of evell thynges,

folyfshe, diffolute,without affeccion, without covenaunt, with

out mercy. Whiche whan they dayely fe the juftice of God, yet underftonde they not y'fuche as thefe thyngescommytte

not onely they y do fuche thynges but e wherfore my chylde alfo they which confent to y doynge go thou never aboute to pleafe them whome vertue difare worthy deth
:
: :

pleafeth

but evermore

let thefe

wordes of y e

apoftyll

be

before thyn eyen.

hominibus.

We

Oportet magis Deo placere muft rather pleafe God then men.

quam

And

thefe wordes of Saynt Paule alfo. Si hominibus If I fholde pleafe men placerem, fervus Chrifti non effem. I were not Chriftes fervaunt. Let entre in to thyn herte

remembre

take them for mayflers e of thy lyvynge whiche have more nede to take y for a maifler of theyrs. Hit were farre more ferny nge y they

an holy pryde

& have dyfdayne to

by good lyvynge begyn to be men then thou fholdefl with them by y levynge of thy good purpofe There holdeth me fomfhamfully begyn to be a befl. tyme by almyghty God as hit were even a fwone and an I wot infenfibilite for wondre when I begyn in my felfe never whether I mall fey to remembre or to forowe, to
fholde with y
e
:

mervayle or to bewayle the apetytes of men, or yf

e
:

mall

more playnly fpeke y very madnes not to beleve the e gofpell whofe trouthe the blode of marters cryeth, y
voyce of apoflles fowneth, miracles proveth, reafon cone e worlde teftifyeth, y elementes fpeketh, fermeth, y
34

But a ferre greter madnes is hit yf devylles confeffeth. thou doubt not but that the gofpell is true to ly ve then as
:

though thou doubteft not but that hit were falfe. For yf thefe wordes of the wordes of the gofpell be true, that hit
is

very harde for a riche man to entre the kyngedome of heven why do we dayly then gape after the hepynge up of

yf this be true that we fholde feke for the glorye and prayfe not that cometh of men, but that cometh of God, why do we then ever harige upon the jugement
riches.

And

&

opinyon of

hym
fhall

or

men and no man rekketh whether God lyke not. And yf we furely beleve y* ones the tyme
in

go ye curfed people in to everlaftynge fyre, & agayne, come ye my bleffed chyldren poffede ye the kyngdome y* hath ben
fhall faye,
e prepared for you from y fourmynge of the world, why is there nothyng then y* we leffe fere then hell, or y we leffe hope for then the kyngedome of God. What fhall we fay
l

come

whiche our Lorde

but y there be many chryflen men in name but fewe in dede. But thou my fone enforce thy felfe to entre
elles
l

by the ftreyght gate y* ledeth to heven & take no hede e what thynge many men do but what thyng y verey law of nature, what thyng very reafon, what thynge our Lorde hym felfe fheweth y to be done. For neyther thy glory fhal be leffe yf thou be happy with fewe nor thy payne more
:

eafy yf thou be wretched with many.

Thou
e

shalt

have

.ii.

the fpecyally effe<5tuall remedyes agaynfl y worlde devyll with whiche two as with .ii. whynges thou (halt

&

out of this vale of miferye be lyfte up in heven, that is to prayer. What maye we do without the faye, almes dede

&

helpe of God, or

how
:

fhall

he helpe us yf he be not called

upon.
certaynely he fhall not here the whan e thou called on hym yf thou here not fyrft y pore man

But over that

35

whan he

calleth

upon y

and verely

hit

is

accordynge

that God (holde defpyfe the beynge a man whan thou beynge a man defpyfeft a man. For hit is wryten in
:

what mefure y ye

And

in

be mete you agayne. an other place of y gofpell hit is fayd: blyffed be

1

rnete, hit fhall

e

Whan I ftyre mercyfull men for they fhall gete mercy. e e the to prayer I ftyre y not to y prayer whiche ftondeth
wordes, but to that prayer whiche in y fecrete e chambre of the mynde, in the prevy clofet of y foule
in
e

many

with very affecle fpeketh to God, and in y mooft lyghtfome darkenes of contemplacion not onely prefenteth the

mynde

to the Father

but alfo unieth

hit
l

with him by

infpekable wayes which onely they knowe y have affayed. Nor I care not how longe or how fhort thy prayer be,

and rather interrupted & broken betwene with fighes then drawen on length with a contynuall rowe & nombre of wordes. Yf thou love e 29 thyne helth, yf thou defyre to be fure from y grennes of
but

how

effe&uall,

how

ardente,

e y devyll, from the ftormes of

awayte of thyn enemyes, yf thou long to be acceptable to God, yf thou coveyte to be happy at the laft let no day paffe the
:

this worlde,

frome

th'

wife prefent thy felfe to God by e prayer, and fallyng downe before hym flat to y grounde e with an humble affecle of devout mynde, not frome y ex-

but thou ones at the

left

e tremyte of thy lippes but out ofy inwardnes of thyn herte,

cry thefe wordes of y prophete.

& ignorantias

meas

Delicla juventutis mee ne memineris, fed fecundum mifericor-

diam tuam memento mei propter bonitatem tuam Domine. The offences of my youth and myn ignoraunces remembre
not good Lorde, but after thy mercy Lorde for thy goodnes remembre me. Whan thou malt in thy prayer axe of God
e
:

both y Holy Spyryte which prayeth for us & eke thynowne neceffyte fhall every houre put in thy mynde, & alfo
36

what thou
in
e

fhalte

praye for

thou

fhall

fynde mater ynough

r

y redynge of holy fcrypture which y thou woldeft now (fettynge poetes fables tryfles a fyde) take ever

&

Thou mayfl do nothynge thyn hand I hartly pray y more pleafaunte to God, nothynge more profitable to thy then yf thyn hande ceafe not day nor nyght to felfe turne and rede the volumes of holy fcrypture. There lyeth pryvely in them a certayn hevenly ftrength quyk
in
. :

e 30

wich with a merveylous power transfourmeth & chaungeth y e reders mynde in to the love of God, yf But I have paffed they be clene and lowly entreated.

and

effectual,

nowe y boundes of a

& the grete love y' & fpecyally fyth y

ende with
lafh

I
l

e y mater drawynge me forth have had to the, bothe ever before

lettre,

houre

in

which

have had
to

fyrft

knowledge of thy mooft holy purpofe.

this

one thynge
I

make an e warne y (of which whan we

e

Now

often talked with y ) that thou never were togyther l e e forget thefe. ii. thynges, y both y Sone of God dyed for y

&

y thou
e

(halt alfo

thy

felfe

dye

fhortly, lyve

thou never
e y one

fo longe.

With

thefe

twayne as with two

fpurres,

of fere y other of love, fpurre forthe thyn hors through y e e fhorte way of this momentarye lyfe to y rewarde of
eternall felicyte, fyth

our

felfe

we neyther ought nor maye prefere than the endles fruycion of y e other ende onye
to foule

infinite

goodnes bothe
fere

&

body

in

everlaftynge

peace.

Fare well and

God. 31

THE MATER OR ARGUMENT OF THE

EPISTLE OF PICUS TO CORNEUS.

ANDEWE

This Andrewe a worfhypfull man and an efpeciall frende of Picus hadde by his lettres gyven hym counceyll to
37

leve the ftudy of phylofophy, as a thynge in which he whiche but thought Picus to have fpent tyme ynough

&

yf

it

were applyed

to

y ufe of

fome
:

a6luall befines

he

juged a thyng vayne unprofy table wherfore he counceyled Pycus to furceace of ftudy and put hym felfe with

&

fome of y e grete prynces of Italy, with whome (as this Andrew fayd) he fholde be moche more fruytefully
occupyed then alway
fophye, to
in the ftudye

&

lernyng of philo-

whom

appereth. folowe y' hit were eyther fervyle or at the left wyfe not e pryncely to make y ftudy of phylofophy other then mercennari) thus

Picus anfwered as in this prefent epeftle Where he fayth thefe wordes ( By this hit fhold

he meaneth. Mercennary we cal all thofe thynges whiche we do for hyre or rewarde. Then he maketh
philofophy mercennary & ufeth hit not as connynge but as marchaundyfe whiche ftudyeth hit not for pleafure of
hit felfe
:

or for the inftruccyon of his

mynde

in mortall

but to applye hit to fuche thynges where he get fome lucre or worldly advauntage.
vertue
:

may

JOHAN PICUS ERLE OF MYRANDULA TO ANDREWE CORNEUS GRETYNGE.

Ye
exhorte

me by
t

your

letters to the
:

cyvyle and actyve

to

lyfe,

fayenge y in vayne
:

and
e

in

maner
in

my
e

rebuke
:

&
I

fhame

have

fo longe ftudyed

philofophy

but yf

wolde at the

laft

excercife y

lernynge in y entretynge

of fome profitable a<5les

outwarde byfynes. Certaynly my welbeloved Andrewe I had caft awaye bothe coft & laboure of my ftudy yf I were fo mynded that I coude
:

&

& fynde my folowe your councell. This is a very deedly and monftrous perfuacyon which hath entred the myndes of men
in

herte in this mater to affent unto you

belevynge that y ftudyes of phylofophye are of eftates

'

&

38

prynces eyther utterly not to be touched or at left wife with extreme lyppes to be fypped and rather to the pompe oftentacion of theyr wit then to the culture & profyte
:

&

The wordes of theyr myndes to be lytel eafely tailed. a fure decree for that holde of Neoptolemus they utterly 32 phylofophy is to be ftudyed eyther never or not longe
:
:
.

&

but the fayenges of wyfe

very fables

that fure

&

they repute for japes & ftedfaft felicite ftondeth onely in

men

that thefe outwarde thynges the goodnes of the mynde, e of y body or of fortune lytle or nought pertayne unto
us.

&

But here ye wyll faye to me thus. I am contente ye ftudye, but I wolde have you outwardly occupyed alfo. And I defy re you not fo to embrace Martha that ye fholde
utterly forfake

Mary.

Love them

&

ufe

them

both, as

Trewly my welbeloved frende in this poynt I gayne fey you not, they that fo do I fynde no fault in nor I blame them not, but certaynly hit is not all one to fey we do well yf we do fo and to fey we do This is farre out of the way to evyll but yf we do fo.
well ftudy as worldly occupacion.
: :

think that from contemplacyon to the aclyfe lyving, that is to fey from the better to the worfe, is none errour to

declyne
ftyll in

thynke that it were fhame to abyde the better and not declyne. Shall a man then be
:

and

to

rebuked by caufe that he defyryth and enfueth vertue c only for hit felfe by caufe he ftudyeth y myfteryes of
:

God

by caufe he enfercheth the counceyll of nature by

:

caufe he ufeth continually this plefaunt eafe reft none outwarde all other fekynge thyng, difpifing thynge e thofe are able to syth thynges fuffyciently fatisfye y
:

&

defyre of theyr folowers. By this rekenynge hit is a e or at y left wife not princely to thynge eyther fervyle make y e ftudy of wyfdom other then mercennarye who
:

may

well here this,

who may
39

fuffre

hit.

Certaynly he

never ftudyed for wyfedome which fo ftudied therfore that in tyme to come eyther he myght not or wolde not
e ftudy therfore, this man rather excercifed y ftudy of marchaundyfe then of wyfedom. Ye wryte unto me that

hit

is

tyme

for

me now

to put

my felfe

in

houfhoulde with
1

fome of the grete prynces of Italy but I fe well y as yet ye have not knowen the opynion that phylofophres have of them felfe, which (as Horace fayth) repute them felfe
33 they love lyberte they can not here kynges of kinges c y proud maners of eflates they can not ferve. They
: :

and be content with the tranquyllyte of theyr owne mynde, they fuffyce them felfe & more, e they feke nothynge out of them felfe y thynges that
felfe
:

dwell with them

are had in honoure

amonge y commune people

:

amonge

them be not holden honourable.

All that ever the voluptuoufe defyre of men thyrfteth for or ambycyon fygheth for Which while hit they fet at nought defpife.
:

&

men yet undoubtedly it perteyneth mooft proprely to them whome fortune hath fo lyberally favoured
belongeth to all
that they
:

nobly.
fett

not onely well and plenteoufly but alfo Thefe grete fortunes lyfte up a man hye and

may lyve

hym

out to the fhewe

but often tymes as a fyerfe

and a fkyttyfsh hors they call of theyr mayfter. Certeynly alway they greve and vexe hym and rather tere hym then
bere hym. The golden mediocrite, the meane eftate is to be defyred whiche mall bere us as hit were in handes 34 more which mall obey us & not mayftre us. I ther eafeli
:

fore
litle

abydyng fermely
houfe,

in this

opynyon

fet

more by
e

my

peace of
that ye
I

my ftudy, my mynde
after

the pleafure of my bokes, y reft and then by all your kynges palaces, all
all

your commune

befynes,

your glory,

hawke

and

all

the advauntage the favoure of the court. Nor

all

loke not for this fruyte of

my

ftudy y

may

therby

40

and rombelyng of your worldly befyneffe may ones bryng forth the chyldren that I travayle on y I may gyve out fome bokes of myn owne to the commune proffyte which may fum what favour yf not of connyng yet at the left wyfe
:

herafter be toffed in the flode

but y

of wyt and dylygence.

travayle mytted or flakked fervent labour with
:

And

by caufe ye
is

fhall

not thynk

that

my

&

ony thyng reI gyve you knowledge y' after grete moch watch and infatygable travayle

dyligence in ftudy

have lerned both the hebrew language and the chaldey, and now have I fet hande to overcome the grete dyffyculte
I

of the araby tonge. Thefe my dere frende be thynges whiche to apertaine to a noble prynce I have ever thought and yet thynke. Fare ye well. Wryten at Paris the .xv. daye of Oclobre the yere of grace. M.CCCC.lxxxxii. 35

THE ARGUMENT OF THE EPYSTLE

FOLOWYNGE.
After that Johan Fraunfces y e nevew of Picus had (as hit e apereth in y fyrft epiftle of Picus to hym) begon a chaunge

femeth by this lettre y the company of the court where he was converfaunt diverfly (as hit is
in his

lyvynge

hit

theyr unmanerly maner) defcanted therof to his rebuke as them thought but as trueth was unto theyr owne. Some
:

them juged hit foly, fome called hit hypocrefy, fome fcorned him, fome fclaundred hym, of all whiche de meanour (as we maye of this epiftle conjecture) he wrote
of

unto this erle Picus his uncle, whiche in this

forted

lettre

com

&

encourageth him, as

hit is in

courfe therof

evydent.

JOHAN PICUS ERLE OF MYRANDULA TO FRAUNSCES HIS NEVEW GRETYNGE IN

OUR LORDE.
Happy art
thou

my fone whan

that cure

Lorde not onely

gyveth the grace wel to lyve but alfo that whyle thou e lyveft wel he gyveth y grace to here evyl wordes of
evyll people for thy

prayfe as hit

is

lyvynge well. Certaynly as grete a to be commended of them y are com

l

mendable, as grete a commendacion

of them
I

it is

to

be reproved

call

y* are reprovable. Notwithftondynge my fone the not therfor happy by caufe this fals reprofe is

worfhypfull

gloryous unto the, but for bycaufe y our Lorde Jefu Chryfl (which is not onely true but alfo trueth hit felfe) afTermeth that oure rewarde fhall be

&

fpeke plenteous in heven when men fpeke evyll to us 36 all evyll agaynft us lyvynge for his name. This is an
Apoflles dignyte

&

be reputed dygne afore God to be defamed of wykked folke for his name. For we rede in the gofpell of Luke that the appoftles went joyfull and
:

to

glad from y counfeill houfe of the Jewes bycaufe

God had

accepted theym as worthy to fuffre wronge and repreffe for his fake. Let us therfore joye and be glad yf we be

worthy

fo grete

worfhyp before God y

his

mewed

thyng that

And yf we fuffre or grevous bytter let this fwete voyce of our Lorde be our confolacion. Si mundus vos odio habet,
in

our rebuke.
is

worfhyp be e of y world ony

fcitote quia

priorem me vobis odio habuit. Yf the worlde (fayth our Lorde) hate you, knowe ye y hit hated me c e If y worlde then hated him by whome y before you.
l
:

worlde was made

we mooft

vyle

&

fimple

men and

worthy (yf we confydre our wreched lyvynge well) all fhame & reproufe yf folke bakbyte us & faye evyll of
:

42

us

fhall

we

fo grevoufly take hit y* left they fhold fay

Let us rather gladly fholde begyn to do evyll. receyve thefe evyl wordes, and yf we be not fo happy to fuffre for vertue trueth as the olde feyntes fuffred
evyll

we

&

deth let us betynges, byndynges, pryfon, fwerdes, e we have well ferved at left wife we be the yf y thynke hatred of wikked grace to fuffre chydynge, detraccion,
:

&

&

occafion of defervynge be taken awaye Yf men for thy ther be lefte us none hope of rewarde.

men,

left

y yf

all

good lyvynge prayfe the thy vertue certaynly in y hit but in that hit is is vertue maketh the lyke unto Chryft prayfed hit maketh the unlike him which for the reward
: : :

of his vertue receyved y opprobryoufe deth of the croffe for which as the apoftle fayth God hath exalted hym and l gyven hym a name y is above all names. More defyre:

than to be condempned of the worlde and exalted of God then to be exalted of the worlde and condempned
full is

of

God y
:

worlde condemneth to
to a
fall,
e

lyfe,

God

exalteth to
to
:

glorye
e

y worlde exalteth
hell.

God condempneth

e Fynaly yf y worlde fawne upon y may be but y* thy vertue (which all lyfte upwarde fholde have God alone to pleafe) fhall fomwhat c e e unto y blandifshynge of y worlde & favoure of y people And fo thoughe hit lefe nothynge of y e ininclyne.

y fyre of unneth hit

tegrite of our perfeccion

yet hit lefeth of the rewarde,

e which reward whyle hit begynneth to be payde in y worlde where all thynge is lytle, hit fhal be leffe in heven

where

al
:

us fure

happy rebukes which make thing is grete. e y neither y floure of our vertue fhall wyther
l
:

with the peftilent blaft of vaynglorye nor our eternall rewarde be mynyfshed for the vayn promocion of a lytell

populare fame.
e

Let us

my
43

fone love thefe rebukes,

&

onely of y ignomynye and reprefe of our Lordes croffe

let

us lyke feythfull fervauntes with an holy

ambycyon
cruci-

unto y Jewes difpite, unto y Gentyles foly, e unto us y vertue and wyfedom of God. The wyfdom of this worlde is folyfshnes afore God, the foly of Chryft is e e y by which he hath overcome y wyfedom of y worlde
is

be proude. fyed, which

We

(fayth
e

Saynt Paule) preche Chryft

e

&

by whiche
people
fafe.

hit

hath pleafed

God
l

to

make

his belivyng

If that thou

doubte not but y they be madde whiche

:

bakbite thy vertue

which the chryflen lyvynge

:

y* is

very wifedom reputeth for madnes confidre than how moche were thy madnes, yf thou fholdeft for the juge-

ment of madde men fwarve frome the good inflitution of thy lyfe,namely fith all errour is with amendement to be
taken awaye & not with imitacion & folowynge to be encreafed. Let theym therfore nyghe, let theym bawl, let them barke, go thou boldely forth thy journey as

thou haft begone, and of the wyckednes & myfery confidre how moche thy felfe arte beholden to God whiche hath
:

illumined y fyttynge in the fhadowe of dethe, and tranflatynge the out of the company of them (which lyke dronken men with out a guyde wandre hyther and

thyther in obfcure derkenes) hath affociate the to the Let that fame fwete voyce of our chyldren of lyght.

Lorde alwaye fowne

mortuos
fuos, tu

in

thyn

eres.

me

fequere.

Sine mortuos fepelire Let deed men alone with

deed men, folowe thou me. Deed be they that lyve not to God, and in the fpace of this temporall dethe laboryoufly
felfe eternall deth. Of whom yf you axe wherto they drawe wherto they referre theyr ftudyes, theyr werkes & theyr befynes, & fynally what ende they

purchafe them

have appoynted them felfe in the adepcyon wherof they fholde be happy eyther they fhall have utterly nothynge
:

44

to anfwere, or they fhall

in

bryng forth wordes repugnaunt

felfe

them

felf

&

contrary eche to other lyke the ravynge of

bedelem people.

flodes they they do, but lyke e be borne forth with y violence of evyll cuftom as hit were e with the boyftious courfe of y ftreme. And theyr wik-

Nor they wot never them them that fwyme in fwyfte

what

kednes blyndynge them on this fyde kynge them forwarde on that fyde

&

the devyl prik-

they renne forthe

hedlyng in to all mifchiefe, as blynde guydes of blynde men, tyll that dethe fet on them unware, & tyll that hit be fayd unto them that Chryft fayth in the gofpell, my e frende this nyght y devylles fhall take thy foule from
the
:

thefe goodes then that thou hafte gedered

whofe

Then fhall they envy them whom they Then fhal they commend them that they defpifed. mokked. Then fhall they coveyte to enfew them in lyvyng whan they may not whom whan they myght have enfhall

they be.

fewed they purfewed. Stop therfore thyn eres my mooft e dere fone, & what fo ever men fey of y what fo ever men
,

e thynke on y accompt hit for nothynge, but regarde onely e y jugement of God, which fhall yelde every man after his owne werkes when he fhall fhewe hym felfe frome
,

e heven with y aungels of

his vertue

in flame of fyre

doynge vengeaunce upon them that have not knowen God nor obeyed his gofpell, wich (as the apoftle feyth)
fhal
fuffre

in

deth eternall peyn, from y e face of our

to

Lorde, & frome the glory of his vertue, whan he fhall come be gloryed of his feyntes & to be made merveylous in

all

them y have beleved.

gehennam.
:

Hit

is

wry ten.

Nolite timere
poteft mittere

qui corpus poffunt occidere, fed qui

in

animam

Fere not them (feyth our Lorde) that may

but fere

He the body
helle.

hym

How

moche

leffe

y may caft the foule in to then be they to be fered y*

:

45

which yf they now bakbyte y lyvynge vertuoufly, they fhall do the fame never the leffe yf (vertue forfaken) thou were over whelmed with

may

neyther hurt foule nor body

e

vyce

vyce difpleafeth them but for y y vyce of bakbytynge alway pleafeth them. Flee yf thou love thyn helth, flee as ferre as thou mayft theyr companye,
:

not for

y*

and retournynge
e

oftentymes fecretly pray unto y mooft benygne father of heven, cryenge with the
prophete.

to

thy

felfe

Ad Te Domine

levaui

animam meam

Deus

meus

in

inimici

confido, non erubefcam, etiam fi irrideant me mei. Etenim univerfi qui fperant in Te non con-

Te

fundentur.

iniqua agentes fupervacue. Vias tuas Domine demonflra mihi, et femitas tuas edoce me. Dirige me in veritate tua, et doce me quia Tu es
:

Confundantur

Te fperabo tota die. 37 That is to faye. To Y Lorde I lyfte up my foule: in The I trull, I fhall not be fhamed, & thoughe myne enemies mok me. CerLet taynly all they y trufl in The fhall not be a fhamed.
Deus Salvator meus,
e

et in

them be a fhamed that worke wyckednes in vayne. Thy weyes good Lorde fhewe me, and thy pathes teche me. Direcle me in thy trueth, and teche me for thou arte God
:

my Savyoure, in The fhall I alfo my fone y the dethe

l

that

& yet leffe tyme Remembre how curfed our olde enemy than a moment.
all

the

the daye. lyeth at hande. our of lyfe is but a moment

trufl all

Remembre Remembre

is

whiche offereth us y e kyngdomes of this world that he e myght beryve us y kyngdome of heven how falfe the
:
:

flefshly

plefures

which therefore embrace us y they

:

how difceyteful might flrangle us honoures which therfore lyfte us up

:

thefe
y'

worldly

they myght
:

throwe us downe
the

how deedly
e

these rycheffes

whiche
:

more they fede

us,

fhorte,

how

uncertayne,

how fhadowe

more they poyfon us how like falfe ymaginary

hit is

wolde wyfsh them. Remembre agayne how grete thynges be promyfed and prepared for them which difpifynge thefe prefent thynges
though
:

thefe thynges togyther they flowe to us as we

all

may brynge

us

&

and longe for that countre whofe kynge is y e Godheed, whofe law is charite, whofe mefure is eternite. Occupi thy mynde with thefe meditacyons and fuche
defire

other y

may waken
e

the

when thou waxes

colde,

when thou flepefl, kyndle y e conferme the when thou wavereft,

exhibit y whynges of the love of God whyle thou laboreft to hevenwarde, that whan thou comeft home to

&

loke for) we may fe not onely hym that we coveyte but alfo fuche a maner one Fare well and love God whom of olde as we coveyte. thou haft begon to fere. At Ferare the. ii. day of July
us (which with grete defyre
the yere of our redempcion.

we

M.CCCC.lxxxxii.

THE INTERPRETACION OF JOHAN PICUS UPON THIS PSALME CONSERVA ME

DOMINE.
Conferva
38

me Domine quoniam
Deus meus
es Tu,

fperavi in

Te.

Dixi

Domino
fuas.

quoniam bonorum meorum

non eges.

Sanclis qui funt in terra mirificavit voluntates

Multiplicate funt infirmitates eorum poftea acceleNon congregabo conventicula eorum de fanraverunt.

guinibus

nee

memor

ero

Dominus
reftitues
in

pars hereditatis

nominum eorum per labia mea. mee & calicis mei Tu es qui
:

hereditatem
:

meam

mihi.

Funes ceciderunt mihi

preclaris

etenim hereditas

mea

preclara eft mihi.

:

et Benedicam Dominum qui tribuit mihi intelleclum vfque ad noclem increpuerunt me renes mei. Providebam

Deum
eft

in

confpeclu

meo

femper,

quoniam a dextris
hoc
letatum
eft

mihi

ne

commovear.
47

Propter

cor

meum
:

et exultavit lingua

mea

infuper et caro

mea

requiefcet in fpe.
in inferno

Quia non derelinques animam

vias vite
:

meam

nee dabis fanclum tuum videre corruptionem.

fecifti

adimplebis me letitia cum Delectationes in dextera tua vfque in fmem. vultu tuo. Conferva me Domine. Kepe me good Lorde. If ony

Notas mihi

perfyte
therin,

man
l

loke upon his

is

to wyte, left

owne eftate there is one parell he wax proude of his vertue, and
in
e

therfore

y perfon of a ryghteous man Conferva me of his eftate begynneth with thefe wordes. Domine. That is to faye, kepe me good Lorde whiche

Davyd fpekyng

worde kepe

be well confydered taketh awaye For he that is able of hym felf all occafyon of pryde. ony thynge to gete is able of him felf that fame thynge He that afketh then of God to be kepte in the to kepe.
:

me

yf

it

vertue fignifyeth in that afkynge that from the begynnynge he gote not that vertue by hym felfe. He
ftate of

then whiche remembreth y he attayned his vertue not by his owne power but by the power of God may not be
:
:

proude therof but rather humbled before God after thofe wordes of th apoftle. Quid habes quod non accepifti.

What haft

thou that thou haft not receyved. And yf thou haft receyved hit why arte thou proude therof as
:

though thou haddeft not receyved it. be there which we fholde ever have
one.

Two
in

wordes then
e
:

our mouthe

Have mercy on me our remembre whan we vyce that other. Conferva me Deus. Kepe me good Lorde when we remembre our
Miferere mei Deus.
:

y Lorde

vertue.

For I have trufted in fperavi in Te. This one thynge is it that maketh us obtayne of God oure

Quoniam
1

truft petycion, y is to wyte, whan we have a full hope that we mall fpede. Yf we obferve thefe two thynges in

&

our requeftes, y* is to wyte, y that whiche is good for us and

we requyre nothynge but y* we requyre hit ardently

with a fure hope that God fhall here us, our prayers ftiall never be voide. Wherfore whan we miffe the effe6le of

our petycyon, eyther hit is for y we afke fuch thynge as is noyous unto us, for (as Chrift fayth) we wot never what
l

we

and Jefus fayd what fo ever ye fhall afke in my name hit fhall be gyven you (this name Jefus fignifyeth e a favyour, and therfore there is nothynge afked in y name
afke,

of Jefus but that is holfome and helpyng to the falvacion of the afker) or elles God hereth not oure prayoure bycaufe that thoughe y thynge y* we requyre be good yet we afke hit not well, for we afke hit with lytle hope. And therfore Saynt he y l afketh doubtyngely afketh coldely
e

&

James biddeth us afke in fayth nothyng doubtyng. I have fayd to our Dixi Domino Deus meus es Tu. Thou. After that he hath warded & arte Lorde my God fenced him felfe agaynft pryd he defcrybeth in thefe wordes his eftate. All the eflate of a ryghteous man ftandeth in thefe wordes. Dixi Domino Deus meus es Tu. I have fayd to oure Lorde my God arte Thou. Whiche wordes though they feme commune to all folke, yet are there very few y may faye them truely. That thyng a man
: :
:

taketh for his god that he taketh for his chyefe good. And that thynge taketh he for his chyefe good which

onely had, though

felfe

all

other thynges lak, he thynketh

hym

whiche onely lakyng, though he have al other thynges, he thinketh him felf unhappy. The negard then feyth to his money deus meus es tu, my god art
happy,
:

&

thou.

For though honour

fayle

&
l

helth and flrenghte

and frendes, fo he have money he thynketh him felfe well. And yf he have al thofe thinges y we have fpoken of, yf

money

fayle

he thinketh him

felfe

unhappy.

The

gloton

49

y ambycioufe man feyth to his my god art thou. Se than how few may vaynglory trewly fey thefe wordes, I have fayde to oure Lorde my God arte Thou. For onely he maye trewly faye it whiche
feyth unto his flefshly
:

luft,

y yf there were offred hym all the kyngdomes of the worlde and all the good that is in erth and all the good that is in heven, he wolde not
is

content with

God

alone

fo

ones offende
than,
all
I

God

to

have them
:

all.

In thefe wordes
art

have feyd

to our

Lord my God

Thou, ftandeth

the ftate of a ryght wyfe man.

Quoniam bonorum meorum non

no nede of

eges.

For thou
e

haft

why God

In thefe wordes he fheweth y caufe he fayth onely to our Lorde Deus meus es tu, my The caufe is for that onely oure Lorde art Thou.

my good.

hath no nede of oure good. There is no creature but y it nedeth other creatures, and though they be of leffe perfeccyon than hit felfe, as phylofophers and divynes

proven
e

for yf thefe
e

y other that
parte of y

more imperfyte creatures were not, For yf ony are more parfyte coude not be.

&

hole unyverfyte of creatures were diftroyed For cerfallen to nought all the hole were fubverted.

taynly one part of that univerfyte perifshyng all parties perifsh, and all creatures be partis of y* univerfyte, of which
univerfyte God is no parte, but he is the begynnyng nothyng there upon dependynge. For nothynge truely

wanne he by y c creacyon of
fholde

this worlde,

nor nothynge

he

lefe

yf the

worlde were

Than turned to nought agayn. hath no nede of oure good. Well ought we certaynly to be a fhamed to take fuche thynge for god as hath nede of us, & fuche is every creature. Moreover we
fhold not accept for god, y l
is

adnychylate and onely God is he whiche

to

goodnes, but

onely

y*

thynge
50

faye for the chyefe whiche is the mooft

all thynges, and that is not the of goodnes ony creature, onely therfore to our Lorde

foverayne goodnes of

ought we to faye
San6lis
fuas.

my God

art

Thou.

To

qui funt in terra ejus mirificavit voluntates e his fayntes that are in y londe of hym he
his willes.

hath

made mervelous

After

God

fholde

we

fpecially love

them which are

nereft

joyned unto God,

blyffed fayntes that are in countree of heven therfore after that he had theyr fayd to oure Lorde my God arte thou he addeth ther: : :

as be the holy aungelles

&

unto that oure Lorde hathe

1

made mervelous

his wylles,

is

to faye

he hathe made mervelous his loves and his

feyntes that are in the londe of to wyte, in the countree of heven whiche

defyres towarde his

hym, that
is

is
e

God and the londe of lyvynge people. we veryly yf inwardly confydre how grete is the felicite of that countree & how moche is y mifery of this worlde, how grete is y goodnes and charyte of thofe bleffed citezyns we mall continually defyre to be hens that we were there. Thefe thynges & fuch other whan we remembre, we mold ever more take hede y* our medicalled

y londe of

And

tacions be not unfruytfull, but that of every meditacyon we mold alwayes purchase one vertue or other, as for

enfample by

this

meditacyon of the goodnes of that

hevenly countree we fholde wynne this vertue that we fholde not onely flrongly fuffre deth and pacyently whan
our tyme cometh or yf hit were put unto us for y faith of Chryft but alfo we fholde wyllyngely and gladly longe therfore, defyrynge to be departed out of this vale
:

of wretchydnes y

we may reygne

in

y hevenly countree

with

God

&

his holy fayntes.

Multiplicate funt infirmitates eorum poftea acceleraverunt. Theyr infyrmytees be multyplyed and after

they hafted.

wycked men. and fo hit is

have but one

Thefe wordes the prophete fpeketh of By infyrmytees he underftondeth idoles

in
e

hebrew

text.

For as good

folke

God whom

they worfhyp, fo evyll folke they have

have many goddes and

tuoufe pleafures

idoles, for

many

volup-

many vayne

defyres

many

dyvers paf-

fyons whiche they ferve,

fondry pleafures ? none y' can fet theyr herte at

phete
fayth)

wherfore feke they many for bycaufe they can fynde certainly
reft

&

&

for

wycked men walk about

:

in

pro a circuet or
(as

Now after thefe compace wherof there is none ende. Idoles be hit foloweth. After wordes theyr multiplied
:

they hafted

l
:

is

to fay

after theyr Idoles, after theyr

paffyons and beeftly defyres they ronne forth hedlynge unadvyfedly without ony confideracyon. And in this be we

taught that we fholde as fpedely ronne to vertue as they ronne to vyce, y we mold with no leffe dylygence

&

ferve our

Lorde God than they ferve theyr lorde y e

e

devyll.

The
*

juft

termineth

man confyderyng y eftate of evyll folke defermly with hym felfe (as we fholde alfo)

that utterly he wyll in no wyfe folowe them,

fore

&

ther-

he

faith.
:

fanguinibus the congregacyon of them frome the blode

Non congregabo conventicula eorum de nee memor ero nominum. I mail not gather
:

nor

fhall
:

not

remembre theyr names, he fayth, from the blode both bycaufe Idolatres were wont to gather the blode of theyr
facrefyce togyther

and theraboute

to

do theyr ferymonyes

and alfo for that all the lyfes of evyll men forfaken reafon whiche ftondeth all in the foule, and folowen fenfualyte
that ftondeth
all in
e y blode, the prophete

faith not

onely

that he wyll not gather theyr congregacyon togyther from l e y blode, that is to fay y he wolde do no facrefyce to thofe
idoles but alfo that

he wolde not remembre theyr names,

52

he wolde not talke nor fpeke of y voluptuoufe delytes whiche are evyll peoples goddes, which we myght yet lawfully do fhewynge us by y
that
is

to fay that

that a parfyte man fholde abftayne not onely from unlawfull l pleafures but alfo frome lawfull, to th'ende y he may all

togyther hole have his mynde in to hevenwarde and the more purely entende unto the contemplacion of hevenly
thynges.

And

for as
l

moche
all

as

fome man wolde perad-

venture thynke y hit were foly for a

man

utterly to dee

pryve him

y prophete addeth. Dominus pars hereditatis mee. Our Lorde is e y part of myn enheretaunce. As though he wolde faye.
Mervayle the not though I forfake all thynge to th'entent e in whom all other y* I may have y poffeffyon of God This mold be the voyce of be poffeffed. thynges alfo every good chryften man. Dominus pars hereditatis mee.

felfe

from

pleafures, therfor

God is the parte of myne enheretaunce. For certaynly we chryften people to whom God is promyfed for an
enheretaunce ought to be a fhamed to defyre ony thyng

befyde hym. But for y* fome man myght happely repute hit for a grete prefumpcion y a man fholde promyfe
l

hymfelfe
michi.

God

for his enherytaunce, therfore y

prophete

putteth therto.

Tu

es qui reftitues hereditatem

meam

Thou good Lorde arte he that mail reftore myne O enherytaunce unto me. As though he wolde faye. I am that nothynge in good Lorde my God I know well
unable to affende by myne e owne ftrength fo hyghe to have Y in poffeffyon, but Thou arte he y malt drawe me to the by thy grace, Thou arte he
refpecl of
l
,

wote well

am

that fhalte

gyve thy

felfe in

poffeffion unto

me.

Let a

ryghteous

man
fall

have

God

then confydre how grete a felicite hit is to unto hym as his enherytaunce hit foloweth
:

in the pfalme.

Funes ceciderunt mihi in preclaris.

53

The

cordes have fallen to

me

nobly.

The

partes

and

lottes of

enherytaunces were of olde tyme met out and dyvyded by Thefe wordes then, the ropes or cordes cordes or ropes.

have

fallen to

me

nobly, be as

moche

to fay as the parte

or lot of
as there

myne enherytaunce is noble. But for as moche be many men which though they be called to
indede
all

this grete felycite (as

chriflen people are) yet

e

they

fet lytel

thereby and often tymes chaunge hit for a

fmall fymple delyte, therfore y prophete faith fuyngly. Hereditas mea preclara eft michi. Myn enheritaunce is

noble to me.

As though he wolde
all

in hit felfe fo hit is

hit noble,

fay that as hit is noble noble to me, that is to faye I reputed

I

and

other thynges in refpecle of hit

repute

But (as Saynt Paule fayth) for donge. as to have this lyght of underftandynge whereby a man may know this gyft that is gyven hym of God to be the
for as

moche

gyft of God, therfore the prophete fuyngely fayth. Benedicam Dominum, qui tribuit intelleclum. That is to faye.

mail blyffe our Lorde which hath gyven me underftondinge. But in fo moche as a man oftentymes entendeth after reafon to ferve God, and y* notwithftondyng yet fenfualite
I

and the

repugneth than is a man perfyte whan y his foule not onely but alfo his flefsh drawe forthe to
flefsh
:

Godwarde after thofe wordes of the prophete in an other Cor meum & caro mea exultaverunt in Deum pfalme. vivum. That is to faye. My mynde & my flefshe both
prophete noclem ad Et here increpuerunt me ufque fuyngely. fayth renes mei. My reynes or kidney hath chyden me unto
the nyght. That is to faye. reynes, in which is wont to to be the greteft inclinacyon concupifcence, not onely nowe enclyne me not to fynne but alfo chydeth me, that is to fay,

have joyed

in to

livynge God.

And

for this the

My

withdrawe

me

from fynne unto the nyght, that

54

is

to faye,

they fo ferforth withdraw they afflyct and payne

me

from fynne that wyllyngly

Afflyccyon
is in

my

body.

fcryp-

ture oftentymes fignified

by the nyght bycaufe hit is the mooft dyfcomfortable feafon. Then fuyngly the prophete e fheweth what is y rote of this privacion or takynge awaye
of flefshly concupifcence in a man, fayenge.

Providebam

femper. I provyded God alway a man had God alwaye before his before me fight. For yf in all his werkes he eyen as a ruler of all his werkes,
in confpectu

Deum

meo

&

fholde neyther feke his

owne
e

lucre his glorye nor his

owne

pleafure but onely to y

fhortly

be perfyte.
in
al

And

for as

pleafure of God, he fhold moche as he y l fo dooth

it

profpereth
that

thynge, therfore

foloweth.

Ipfe a

dextris eft mihi ne

I

commovear.
e

He

is

on

my ryght

hand

be not moved or troubled.

Then

the prophete

y grete mail be everlaftyngly blyffed bothe in body and in foule, and therfore he fayth. Letatum eft cor meum. My foule
is

declareth

how

is

felycite of a juft man, whiche

glad knowyng y after deth heven Et caro mea requiefcet in fpe. And
is

is

made redy for hym.

my flefshe mall reft in

joye not by and by as

hope. That

to faye that

thoughe

it

39 gloryous eftate medyatly after the deth, yet hit refteth in the fepulcre with this hope that it mall aryfe in the daye of judgemente immortall and fhynynge

in recey vynge his

with his foule.

prophete more expreffely declareth in the verfe folowing. For where he fayd thus, is he addeth the foule caufe, fayenge. Quia non my glad,
alfo the

And

derelinques animam meam in inferno. For thou fhalt not leve my foule in hell. Alfo where the prophete fayd that
his flefsh fholde reft in

hope he fheweth the

caufe, fayeng.

Nee

dabis fanctum

tuum videre corruptionem.

e

Nor thou
is

fhalte not fuffre thy faynt to fe corrupcyon, that

to faye,

thou fhalte not

fuffre

flefshe of a

good man

to

be cor-

55

For that that was corruptyble fhall aryfe incor ruptible. And for as moche as Chryft was the fyrft whiche entred paradife and opened the lyfe unto us, and was the
rupted.
fyrft that rofe

agayne and the caufe of our refurreccyon therefore thefe wordes that we have fpoken of the refur reccyon ben pryncipally underftonden of Chrift, as Saynt
:

Peter y apoftle hath declared, & fecondaryly they may be underftonden of us in y* we be the membres of Chrift,
e

which onely never fawe corrupcyon,

for his holy

body

For as moche fepulcre nothyng putrified. then as y e way of good lyvyng bryngeth us to a perpetuall e Notas lyfe of foule body, therfore y prophete fayth. mihi fecifti vias vite. Thou haft made the wayes of lyfe
in his

was

&

knowen unto me.

And

bycaufe that

all

the felycite

of that ftondeth in the clere beholdynge and fruycion of God, therfore hit foloweth. Adimplebis me letitia cum
vultu tuo.
chere.
fore

Thou malt
for that

fyll

me

full

of gladnes with thy

And

our

felicite

he fayth.

Deleclationes in

mail be everlaftynge, ther dextra tua ufque in finem.

:

Deleclacion

&

joy

fhall

be on thy ryght hande for ever

1

he fayth on thy ryght hand bycaufe y our felycite is fulfylled in the vyfyon and fruytion of the humanyte of
Chryft which fytteth in heven on y ryght hande of his e father's majefte, after y wordes of Saint Johan. Hec eft
tota merces, vt
e

videamus Deum, & quern mififti Jefum Chriftum. That is all oure rewarde that we maye beholde God and Jefus Chryft whome thou haft fent to whiche
:

rewarde he brynge us that fytteth there and prayeth

us.

for

Amen.

HERE BEGYN

.XII.

PICUS ERLE OF

MYRANDULA PARTELY EXCYTYNG PARTELY DYRECTYNGE A MAN IN SPYRYTUALL BATAYLE.

40

RULES OF JOHAN

Who fo

to vertue eftemeth the

waye

Bycaufe we muft have warre contynuall

Agaynft y worlde, y flefsh, y devyll, that aye Enforce them felfe to make us bonde & thrall, Let hym remembre that chefe what way he fhall
muft he nede fufteyn Sorow, adverfite, labour, greyfe, and payne.
after the worlde, yet

Even

THE SECONDE RULE.

Thynke in this wretched worldes befy woo The batayll more fharpe & lenger is I wys With more laboure and leffe fruyte alfo
In whiche the ende of laboure labour
is
:

And when
Voyde
Is

the worlde hath

left

us after this

of

all

vertue

the rewarde

when we dye

nought but fyre and payne perpetually.

THE THYRDE RULE.

Confydre well that foly it is and vayne To loke for heven with pleafure and delyght. Sith Chryft our Lorde and fovereyne captayne

Afcended never but by manly fyght And bytter paffion, then were it no ryght That ony fervaunt, ye wyll your felfe recorde,
Sholde fhonde
in better

condicyon than his lorde.

57

THE FOURTH RULE.

Thynke how
that

we

But eke be glad and

not onely fholde not grudge joyfull of this fyght,

And

longe therfore

How

though we coude not judge that therby redounde unto us myght

all

Ony profyte, but onely for delyght To be confourmed and lyke in fome behavour To Jefu Chryft our bleffed Lorde & Savyoure.
As
often as thou doft warre

and

ftryve,

By the refyflence of ony fynfull mocyon, Agaynft ony of thy fenfuall wyttes fyve,
Caft in thy minde as oft with good devocyon How thou refemblefb Chryft as with fowre pocyon
:

If thou

payne thy

tail

remembre there withall

41

How Chryft

for the tailed eyfell

and

gall.

Yf thou withdrawe thyn handes and forbere The raven of ony thynge remembre than
:

How

his innocent

handes nayled were.

:

Yf thou be tempte

He He toke the map and humbled hym felfe for the To the mooft odioufe and vyle deth of a tree.
:

with pryde thynke how that was in forme of God yet of a bonde man

whan

Confydre when thou arte moved to be wrothe He who that was God, and of all men the beft,

Seynge hym

And
With

fcorged both, as a thefe betwene .ii. theves threft

all

felfe fcorned,

yet from his breft Came never figne of wrath or of difdayne, But pacyently endured all the payne.
:

rebuke and fhame

58

Thus every

fnare

Yf thou

this

and engyne of the devyll wyfe perufe them by and by

:

There can be none fo curfed or fo evyll But to fome vertue thou mayft it applye. For ofte thou fhalt refyftyng valyauntly The fendes myght and fotle fyery darte Our Savyour Cryft refemble in fome parte.
: :

THE FYFT RULE.

Remembre
Neyther
in

well that

no wyfe muft the forefayd efpyrytuell armoure

in
:

we

Nor ony
For he

other remedy put our truft, But onely in the vertue ftrength of our Savyour
it is

by whofe myghty powre

The worlde was veynquyfshed

Whiche reygned
In
before in
all

&

his

prynce

caft out

the erthe about.

hym let us truft to overcome all evyll, In hym let us put our hope and confydence, To fubdewe the flefshe and mailer y devyll, To hym be all honour and lowly reverence
e
:

Oft fholde

we requyre with

all

With

prayer, with teeres,

&

our dyligence lamentable playntes

The ayde

of his grace and his holy fayntes.

THE SYXTE RULE.

One
fynne vaynquyfshed loke thou not tarye, But lye in awayte for another every houre, For as a wood 42 lyon the fende our adverfarye
:

Rynneth aboute fekynge whom he may devoure Wherfore contynually upon thy towre, Left he the unpurveyed and unredy catche,

Thou muft

with the prophete ftonde

&

kepe watche.

59

THE
Enforce thy
felfe

.VII.

RULE.

not onely for to ftonde Unvaynquyfshed agaynft the devyls myght, But over that take valyauntly on hande
:

To vaynquyfshe hym and put hym unto flyght And that is whan of y fame dede thought or fyght
e

By whych he wolde have the with fynne contract Thou takeft occafyon of fome good vertuoufe ac~te.

Some tyme he fecretly caftyth in thy mynde Some lawdable dede to ftere the to to pryde, As vayn glorye makyth many a man blynde.
But
let

Thy

humylite be thy fure guyde, good wark to God let hit be applyede,
is.

Thynke hit not thyn but a gyft of his Of whofe grace undowtedly all goodnes

THE

.VIII.

RULE.

The tyme of batayle fo put thy felfe in preace 43 As though thou fhuldeft after that victorye
Enjoye for ever a perpetuall peace For God of his goodnes and lyberall mercy Maye graunt the gyfte, & eke thy proude enemy,
:

Shall the no

Confounded and rebuked by thy batayle, more happely for very fhame

affayle.

e But when thou mayft ones y triumphe obtayne Prepare thy felfe and trymme the in thy gere

As thou molded

incontinent fight agayn, For yf thou be redy the devyll wyll the fere: Wherfore in ony wyfe fo ever thou the bere

60

That thou remembre and have ever

in

memory

In victory batayle in batayle victory.

THE
If thou

.IX.

RULE.

thynke thy

felfe well

fenced and fure

Agaynft every

fotell

fuggeftion of vyce,

dyfbres endure, adventurers ofte curs the dyce grete Jeopard not to farre therfore and ye be wyfe, But evermore efchewe the occafyons of fynne,

Confydre frayle

glaffe

may no

And

For he

that loveth parell fhall perefsh therin.

THE
In
all

.X.

RULE.
:

temptacyon withftonde the begynnynge The curfed infantes of wretched Babilon 44

To

a jeoperdous thynge Bete out theyr braynes therfore at the Stone Perylous is the canker that catcheth the bone To late cometh the medicine yf thou let the fore
fuffre
is
:
:

them wax

By

longe contynuaunce encreafe more

&

more.

THE

.XL RULE.

Though in the tyme of the batayle and warre The conflecle feme bytter fharpe and fowre,
Yet confydre hit is more pleafure farre Over the devyll to be a conqueroure

Then is in the ufe of thy beeftly pleafoure Of vertue more joye the confcience hath within Then outwarde the body of all his fylthy fynne.
:

In this poynt

many men

erre for necligence,

For they compare not the joye of the vyclory

To

the fenfuall pleafure of theyr concupifcence, 61

But lyke rude beefles unadvifedly

Lakkynge difcrecyon they compare

Of theyr

To

applye fowle fynne the voluptuoufe delyght the laberous travayle of the conflycl & fyght.

&

And yet alas What gryefe

Of his
cruell

he that ofte hath knowen

by longe experyence enemye to be over throwen,

left

it is

Sholde ones at the

wyfe do

his diligence

To prove and affaye What pleafure there

with manly defence

is,

what honour peace & In glorioufe viftorye tryumphe and conqueft.

reft

THE

.XII.

RULE.
:

Though thou be tempted difpayre the nothynge Remembre the gloryous apoftle Saynt Paule

Whan

he had feen

God

in his perfyte beynge,

Left fuche revelacyon fholde his herte extolle, His flefshe was fuffred rebell agaynft the foule

This dyd almyghty God To preferve his fervaunt

of his goodnes provide e fro y daunger of pryde.

And And

here take hede that he

for his

whom God dyd

veffell chofe,

love,

mooft efpeciall

Ravyfshed into the thyrde heven above,

Yet ftode in peryll left pryde myght hym depofe Well ought we then our hertes fence & clofe Agaynft vaynglorye the mother of repryefe, The very crop and rote of all myfchefe.
Agaynft

pompe & wretched worldes glofe how Crift the Lorde, fovereyne powere, Confydre Humbled him felfe for us unto the croffe
this
:

62

perad venture deth with in one houre Shal us bereve welth ryches and honowre And bryng us down ful low both fmal & grete
:

And

To

vyle caryon and wretched

wormes mete.

Here folowe the .XII. wepens of fpirytual batayle which every man fhuld have at hand when y e plefure of a fynful temptacyon commeth to his mynde.

The The

fhort. plefure lytle folowers gryef

&

&

Eternal joy eternal payne. Ye nature & dygnyte of

hevynes.

man.

The loffe of a bettyr thyng.

This
lyfe a

peace of a good mynde.

dreame and a

fhadowe.

The

deth at our hand

&

The grete benfytes of God. The peynful cros of Cryft. The wytnes of martyrs
and example of fayntes.

unware.

fere of impenitent de-

partyng.

THE .XII. WEPENS HAVE WE MORE AT LENGTH DECLARED AS HIT FOLOWYTH. THE PLEASURE LYTLE AND SHORT.
45

Confydre well the pleafure that thou haft, Stande hit in towchyng or in wanton fyght, In vayne fmell or in thy lycoroufe tad, Or fynally in what fo ever delyght

Occupyed

Thou

thy wretched appetyght malt hit fynde when thou haft al caft
is
:

Lytle, fymple, fhort,

and fodenly

paft.

THE FOLOWERS GRYEFE & HEVYNES.

Ony good wark yf thou with labour do, The labour goth, the goodnes doth remayne
If thou
:

do evyl with pleafure joyned

63

therto,

The

pleafure which thyne evyll

his

wark doth contayne

:

wey, thou maft hym not reftrayne The evyl then in thy breft cleveth behynde Wyth grudge of hert and hevynes of mynde.

Glydeth

THE LOSSE OF A BETTER THYNG.

When
Upon Thou felleft
thou laboreft thy pleafure for to bye the pryce loke thou the well advyfe,

thy foule therfore evyn by & by To thy mooft uttre difpiteoufe enemyes mad merchaunt, o folifsh merchaundyfe,
:

To by a tryfle, o chyldyfshe And pay therefore fo dere a

rekenynge,
precyoufe thyng.

THIS LYFE A
This wretched
life

DREME AND A SHADOW.

&
confidence
to fynne)

(the truft

Of whofe contynuaunce maketh us bolde Thou perceiveft well by experience,

Sith that houre in which hit

dyde begynne, Hit holdeth on the courfe and wyll not lynne, 43 But fail hit rynneth on and paffen fhall
doth a dreme or a fhadowe on the wall.

As

DETH AT OUR HAND AND UNWARE.

Confydre well that ever nyght and daye, Whyle that we befyly provyde and care

For oure difport revell myrth and play, For plefaunt melody and deynty fare Deth ftelyth on ful flyly, and unware He lieth at hand and fhall us entreprife We not 47 how foone nor in what maner
:

wife.

FERE OF IMPENITENT DEPARTYNGE.

If thou fholdeft

God

offende thynke

how

therfore

Thou were
For

forthwith in very jeoperdous cafe happely thou fholdeft not lyve an houre more
to clenfe,

Thy fynne

&

though thou haddeft fpace.

:

Yet peradventure fholdeft thou lacke the grace Well ought we then be a ferde to done offence
Impenitent
left

we

departen hens.

ETERNALL REWARDE ETERNALL PAYNE,

Thou
but a thorowfare, Se thou behave the wifely with thy hooft
feeft this
is
:

worlde

Hens muft thou nedes departe naked

& bare,

And

after thy deferte loke to

what cooft

Thou arte convayed at fuche tyme as thy gooft From this wretched carkas fhall dyffever Be hit joye or payne, endure hit thou fhall for ever.
:

THE NATURE AND DYGNITE OF MAN.

Remembre how God
Lyke unto
his

hath

made

the refonable

image and fygure, And for the fuffred paynes intolerable That he for aungell never wolde endure.

Regarde o man thyne excellent nature Thou that with aungell arte made to bene For very fhame be not the devylles thrall.
:

egall,

THE PEACE OF A GOOD MYNDE.

Why
Take Take
loveft thou fo this brotle worldes joye
:

the myrth, take all the fantafies, every game, take every wanton toye,
all

65

Take every fport that man can the devyfe And amonge them all on warantyfe Thou fhalt no pleafure comparable fynde

To

th'ynwarde gladnes of a vertuous mynde.

THE CRETE BENEFYCES OF GOD.

fourmed both fyde that God the bought Many a benefyte haft thou receyved of his Though thou have moved hym often to be wroth

By

&

Yet he the kepte hath and brought us up And dayly calleth upon the to his blys
:

to this,

How mayft

thou then to

hym unlovynge be

That ever hath ben fo lovynge unto the.

THE PAYNFULL CROSSE OF CHRYST.

Whan
thou in flame of the temptacyon Thynke on the very lamentable payne,
fryeft

Thynke Thynke Thynke Thynke

Let

on the pyteoufe croffe of wofull Chryft, on his blode bet out at every vayne,
on
his

precyous herte kerved in twayne

how

for thy

redempcyon

all

was wrought

hym

not lefe that he fo dere hath bought.

THE WYTNES OF MARTYRES & EXAMPLE

OF SAYNTES.
Synne to withftonde faye not thou lakkeft myght Suche allegacyons folye hit is to ufe
: :

The wytnes

of fayntes,

& martyrs

conftant fyght
:

Shall the of flouthfull cowardyfe accufe God will the helpe yf thou do not refufe

Yf

other have ftande or this thou mayft eft foone Nothynge impoffible is that hath bene doone.

66

THE

.XII.

PROPERTEES OR CONDICYONS OF A LOVER.

l

To love one alone and contempne all other for y one. To thynke hym unhappy that is not with his love. To adourne hym felfe for the pleafure of his love. To fuffre all thyng, thoughe hit were deth, to be with his
love.

To

defy re alfo to fuffre lhame harme for his love, and to thynke that hurte fwete.

To
To To
To

be with his love ever as he may, yf not

in

dede yet

in

thought. love all thynge y* perteyneth unto his love. coveite the prayfe of his love, and not to fuffre ony
dyfprayfe.

beleve of his love

that
all

all

thynges excellent,
in

&

to defyre

folke fholde thynke the fame.

:

To wepe
To To

often with his love

prefence for joye, in

abfence for forowe.

languyfshe ever and ever to burne in the defyre of his
love.

ferve his love, nothyng thynkynge of

profyte.

ony rewarde or

THE. XII. PROPERTEES WE HAVE AT LENGTH MORE OPENLY EXPRESSED IN BALADE AS HIT FOLOWETH.
48

The

fyrft

And
The
In

for

poynt is to love but one alone, that one all other to forfake
:

For who

many loveth none many chanelles take eche of them mall feble flremes make
fo loveth
is
:

flode that

in

67

The

love that

Unneth

devyded amonge many fuffyfeth that ony parte have ony.

is

So thou

that haft thy love fet unto

God

In thy remembraunce this enprynt

&

grave

As he

in

foverayne dignyte

is

odde,
:

So wyll he in love no partynge felowes have Love hym therfore with all that he the gave For body, fowle, wytte, connynge, mynde & thought,
:

Parte wyll he none, but eyther

all

or nought.

THE SECONDE PROPERTE.

Of his

To

love lo the fyght and company the lover fo glad and pleafaunt is,
fo

That who

hath the grace to come therby

:

He judgeth hym in perfyte joye and blys And who fo of that company doth myffe,
Lyve he
in

He

never fo profperous eftate, thynketh hym wretched and infortunate.

So fholde the lover of God efteme that he Whiche all the pleafure hath, myrth and difporte That in this worlde is poffible to be, Yet tyll the tyme that he maye ones reforte Unto that blyffed joyfull hevenly porte

Where he
Is

of God may have the glorious fyght, of voyde parfyte joye and delyght.

THE THYRDE PROPERTE.

The thyrde poynt of a parfyte lover is To make hym frefshe, to fe that all thynge bene
Apoynted
well

and nothynge
68

fet

a mys,

But

all

That

in his

well fafshoned, propre, goodly clene there be fene parfone nothynge

&

In fpeche, apparayll, gefture, loke or pace That may offende or mynyfshe ony grace.

So thou

that wylte with

felfe

God gete

in to favoure

Garnyfshe thy

As comely be, as As hit is poffyble

I

goodly wyfe, honeft in behavoure

for the to

up

in as

devyfe

meane not hereby

in the glaffe

that thou fholdeft aryfe,

49

And

upon thy body prowle,

to

But with fayre vertue

adourne thy

foule.

THE FOURTH PROPERTE.

If love

There may no

be ftronge, hote, myghty, and fervent, trouble, greyfe or forow fall,

But that the lover wolde be well content All to endure and thynke hit eke to fmall,

Thoughe

hit

were deth

fo

he myght therwithall

The joyfull

On whom
Thus

prefence of that perfone get he hath his herte and love i set.

fholde of

God

the lover be content

Ony

dyftres or forow to endure,

Rather then to be from

God

abfent,

And

glad to dye, fo that

he maye be fure

By his departynge hens for to procure After this valey darke the hevenly lyght, And of his love the gloryoufe fight.

THE FYFT PROPERTE.

Not onely a
lover content
is

in his herte,

But coveyteth eke and longeth

to fuflayne

Some

laboure, incommodite or fmarte,

Loffe, adverfyte, trouble, greyfe or

payne

And of his forowe joyfull is and fayne, And happy thynketh hymfelfe that he may Some myfadventure for his lovers fake.
Thus
fholdeft thou that loveft

take

God

alfo

In thyne herte wyfshe, covey te and be glad

For hym to fuffre trouble, payne and woo For whom yf thou be never fo woo beftade, Yet thou ne fhalt fufleyne (be not adrad) Halfe the dolour, gryefe and adverfyte
:

The he

all

redy fuffred hath for the.

THE. VI. PROPERTE.

The
parfyte lover longeth for to be In prefence of his love both nyght

&

daye

And yf hit happely fo May not as he wolde

Ever be with

be
:

fall

that he

he wyl yet as he may

is

his love, that

to faye,

Where

He
Lo At

60 hevy body nyl be brought wyll be converfaunt in mynd and thought.

his

in lyke

maner the lover of God fholde

fuche wyfe as he may,

the

left in

If he

may purvey, Though al y worlde wolde hym therfro beryven, To bere his body in erth, his mynde in heven.
e

Be For

may not in fuche wyfe as he wolde, prefent with God and converfaunt alway
certes

who

fo lyft

he

THE

.VII

PROPERTE.

There is no page or fervaunt moll or left That doth upon his love attende & wayte,
70

Ne

There is no lytle worme, no fymple befl, none fo fmall a tryfle or conceyte,

:

Lafe, gyrdell, poynt, or propre glove ftrayte But that yf to his love hit have ben nere,

The

lover hath hit precyous, leyfe,

&

dere.

So every relyque, image or py6lure, That doth pertayne to Goddes magnyfycence,

The lover of God fholde wyth all befy cure Have hit in love, honoure and reverence And fpecyally gyve them preemynence Which dayly done his bleffed body nyrche, 51 The quyk relyques, the my ny fires of his chyrch.
:

THE
A

.VIII.
all

PROPERTE.
erthly thyng

very lover above

Covey teth and longeth evermore to here T'honoure, lawde, commendacyon and prayfyng,

And
Of

every thyng that may the fame clere his love he may in no manere
:

Endure

to here that therefro

myghten

vary,

Or ony thyng fowne The

lover of

in to the contrary.

God

fholde coveyte in lyke wyfe

here his honoure, worfhyp, laude and prayfe, Whofe fovereygne goodnes none herte may compryfe,

To

Whom
Whofe

hell, erth,

and

all

the heven obayfe

To

parfyte lover ought by no maner wayes fuffre the curfed wordes of blafphemy,

Or ony thynge fpoken

of

God

unreverently.

THE
A

.IX.

PROPERTE.
i

very lover beleveth in his mynde, On whom fo ever he hath his herte bent,

That in that perfone men may nothynge fynde But honorable, worthy and excellent,
eke furmountynge farre in his entent All other that he hath knowen by fyght or name

And

And

wolde that every man fholde thynke the fame.

lyke wyfe fo wonderfull and hye All thynge efteme judge his lover ought,

Of God

&

So reverence, worfhyp, honour & magnyfye, That all the creatures in this worlde wrought
i

In comparyfon fholde hee

fet at

nought

glad be yf he myght the meane devyfe That all the worlde wolde thynken in lyke wyfe.

And

THE.X. PROPERTE.
The
lover
is

of colour deed and pale

flepe in to his

There wyll no

eyen

ftalk

He He
He

favoreth neyther mete, wyne, nor ale myndeth not what men about hym talke
:

But ete

he,

drynke

he, syt, lye

downe

or walke,

burneth ever as hit were with a fyre

In the fervent hete of his defyre.

Here fholde the lover of God enfample take To have hym contynually in remembraunce, With hym in prayer and medytacyon wake,

Whyle other playe, revell, fynge, and daunce None erthly joy, difport or vayne plefaunce
Solde

hym

delyte, or

ony thynge remove

his

His ardent mynde from God

72

hevynly love.

THE
Now Now
And

.XI
is

PROPERTE.
the lovers herte
:

Dyverfly paffyoned
plefaunt hope,

parfyte blyffe, whether his love be with

now drede and grevous fere, now bytter forowe fmarte

:

hym

or elles where,

Oft from his eyen there

falleth

many
:

a tere

For very joy when they togyther be

Whan
Lyke

they be fondred

for adverfyte.

affeccyons feleth eke the breft lover in prayer and meditacyon Whan that his love lyketh in hym reft

Of Goddes

With inwarde gladnes of pleafaunt contemplacyon, Out breke the teres for joye and dele6lacyon And whan his love lyft efte to parte hynv fro, Out breke the teres agayne for payne & woo.
:

THE
A
His joye
it is

.XII.

PROPERTE.
:

very lover wyll his love obaye

and
in

all

his

To

payne

hym

felfe in all that

That parfone

whom

appetyght ever he maye, he fet hathe his delyght

Dylygent to ferve bothe day and nyght

For very love without ony regarde To ony profyte, gwerdon or rewarde.

So thou lyke wyfe that haft thyne herte fet Upwarde to God fo well thy felfe endevere, So ftudyoufly that nothynge may the let Nor fro his fervyce ony wyfe diffevere
i
:

Frely loke eke thou ferve that therto never

73

Truft of rewarde or profyte do the bynde, But onely faythfull herte lovynge mynde.

&

Wageles

thynges may us move Fyrft yf the fervyce felfe be defyrable

to ferve
.iii.
:

Seconde yf they whom that we ferve Be very good and very amyable Thyrdely of reafon be we fervyfable Without the gapynge after ony more
:

&

love

To

fuche as have done

moche

for us before.

Serve

God

for love then, not for

fo defyrable

What fervyce maye As where all turneth

hope of mede. be

redy done fo moche for the, As he that fyrft the made, and on the rode Eft the redemed with his precyous blode.
hath
all

Who Who

is fo

good, fo

thyne owne fpede. lovely eke as he,

to

A PRAYER OF PICUS MIRANDULA UNTO

GOD.
of dredefull mageftee Verely one in .iii and thre in one

holy

God

Whom

aungelles ferve, whofe

werk

all

creatures be,
:

Which heven and erth direcleft all alone We The befeche good Lorde with wofull mone,
Spare us wretches & wafshe away our gylt That we be not by thy juft angre fpylt.
In ftraye balance of rygorous judgement If Thou molded our fynne pondre and wey

Who

able were to bere thy punyfshment.

74

The hole engyne of all this worlde I faye, The engyne that enduren fhall for aye,
With fuche examynacyon myght not
Space of a moment
in

ftande

thyne angry hande.

Who Who

not born in fynne originall. doth not aftuall fynne in fondry wyfe. But thou good Lorde arte he that fpareft all
is
:

With pyteoufe mercy temperynge juftyce For as Thou doeft rewardes us devyce Above our meryte, fo doeft thou difpence

Thy punyfshement
More
is

farre

undre our offence.

our fynne

thy mercy farre then

alfo that

all

To gyve them
More godly
is,

unworthy be
therin.
:

and more mercy

:

Howbehit worthy inough are they perdee Be they never fo unworthy whom that he
Lyft to accept
:

where

fo

ever he taketh

Whom

he unworthy fyndeth worthy maketh.

Wherfore good Lorde that aye mercyfull arte, Unto thy grace and foverayne dygnyte We fely wretches crye with humble herte
:

Oure fynnes forget and our malygnite With pyteous eyes of thy benygnyte

Frendly loke on us ones thyne owne, Servauntes or fynners whether hit lyketh The.

Synners, yf

Thou our cryme

beholde, certayne

Our cryme

the warke of our uncorteyfe

mynde
:

But yf thy gyftes

Thy

agayne, and wonderfull noble kynde gyftes

75

Thou beholde

Thou fhalte us then the fame perfones fynde Which are to The, and have be longe fpace
Servauntes by nature, chyldren by thy grace.

But

this

thy goodnes wryngeth us alas

For we whom grace had made thy chyldren dere Are made thy gylty folke by our trefpace
:

Synne hath us gylty

But
let

made

this

many

a yere.

thy grace, thy grace that hath no pere, Of our offence furmounten all the peace, 52

That

in

our fynne thyne honour

may

encreace.

For though thy wifdom, though thy foverayn powre

wyfe appere fuffycyently As thynges whiche thy creatures every houre All with one voice declare and teftyfye
: :

May other

Thy goodnes yet, thy fynguler mercy, Thy pyteous herte, thy gracyous indulgence
Nothynge
fo clerely

fheweth as our offence.

What

but our fynne hath fhewed that mighty love

able

Whiche

To And

was thy dredful mageflee drawe downe in to erth fro heven above
:

crucyfye God that we poor wretches Sholde from our fylthy fynne iclenfed be

we

With blode and water of thyne owne fyde, That ftremed from thy blyffed woundes wyde.

Thy
Our

love and pyte thus o hevenly Kynge evyll maketh mater of thy goodnes.

O love, o pyte, our welth ay provydynge, O goodnes fervyng thy fervauntes in diftres. O love, o pyte, well nygh now thankles.

goodnes, myghty, gracyous and wyfe, And yet almoft now vanquyfshed with our vyce.

Graunt

The praye

fuche hete into

myne

herte

That

to this love of

me fro With whom me rueth fo longe to be thrall. Graunt me good Lorde and Creatour of all The flame to quenche of all fynfull defyre, And in thy love fet all myne herte a fyre.
Graunt

thyne may be egall. Sathanas fervyce to aftert,

That whan the journay of this deedly lyfe My fely gooft hath fynyfshed, and thenfe
Departen muft without his flefshly wyfe, Alone in to his Lordes hygh prefence He may The fynde o Well of Indulgence
: :

In thy lordefhyp not as a lorde but rather As a very tendre lovynge father.
:

Amen.

Enprynted
at the

at

London

in the Fleteftrete

fygne of the Sonne, by Wynkyn de Worde.

me

77

NOTES.

NOTES.
COLLATION OF MORE'S TEXT
with the original showed that in a few instances he had inaccurately or inade
In such cases, or quately rendered it. where for any other reason it seemed
desirable, the

words of the
is

original are

given in the notes, the

letters

G. F.

P. or P. subjoined in

brackets indicating that the reference by Giovanni Francesco Pico or to

to the Latin life

Pico's works.

few misprints have been silently corrected. 1. This lady may be either Jocosa or Joyce, daughter of Richard Culpeper of Hollingborne, Kent, and wife of

Ralph Leigh, undersheriff of London, or her daughter, Jocosa or Joyce Leigh, sister of Sir John Leigh who suc ceeded to the manor of Stockwell, Surrey, on the death
of his uncle, Sir John Leigh, 27 Aug., 1523. " History and Antiquities of Lambeth,"

Tanswell,
pp.
41-2.

" Manning and Bray, History of Surrey," in. 497-8. 2. Pico was the third son and youngest child of Gio vanni Francesco Pico, Count of Mirandola and Concordia in the Modenese. He had two brothers, Galeotto, and Antonio Maria, and three sisters, Catterina, Lucreziaand

81

Galeotto had to wife Bianca, daughter of Niccolo d'Este, lord of Ferrara; Antonio Maria married twice, viz., (i) Costanza, daughter of Sante Bentivoglio, lord of
Giulia.

a Neapolitan lady. Pico's eldest sister, married Leonello Pio, lord of Carpi, by Catterina, (i) whom she had Alberto, mentioned in connection with
Bologna,
(2)

Pico's death

(2) Rodolfo, lord of

little

Gonzaga.

Gonzaga are
also

towns
viz.

in
(i)

the Modenese.

Carpi and Lucrezia

lord

married twice,
;

Pino
di

Ordelaffo,

of

Forli

(2)

Gherardo Appiani

Montagnana.

The

third sister,

Piombino, Count of Giulia, took the veil.

far as
;

Pico's pedigree has

been carried back as

of Reggio, a contemporary of Charlemagne scent from the nephew of Constantine is mythical.

"

Manfredo but the de

Memorie Storiche della Mirandola," Litta, " Celebr. Fam. Ital." Pico, Opera (ed. 1601), Life by G. F. Pico
and
"

Adversus Astrologos," ii. cap. ix. Giulia was the daughter of Feltrino 3. The Boiardi. Boiardo, first Count of Scandiano, and aunt of the poet, Matteo Maria Boiardo, author of the " Orlando InnamoLitta,

rato."

" Celebr.

Fam.

Ital."

Venturi,

"

Storia di

Scandiano," p. 83. 4. Paulinus was secretary to S. Ambrose, and wrote his life from which the story in the text is taken.
;

5. "Flavo et inaffectato capillitio" (G. F. P.). Appa rently Pico was somewhat careless about the arrangement

of his hair.

Apollonius of Tyana, fl. 70 A.D., travelled through out the ancient world expounding Neo-Pythagoreanism,
6.

and working wonders, esteemed miraculous. 7 For an account of these spurious compositions,
written at various dates between the
first

century before

and the

third century after Christ, but

which were uni-

82

versally regarded as genuine in Pico's day, see Zeller,

"

Philosophie der Griechen."

8. 9.

Aquinas.

With whom Pico was connected by

2.

affinity.

See

note
10.
11

For

this

vaunt of Epicurus see Diogenes Laertius,

X. 13 SC. TOUTOV ArrottodafOg
VTO
tie

Vltae PhllOSph.

ev

xpovixoig Avcri<pdvov$
ev

oi>

y<riv

axtf lawrou

was not altogether so generous as it appears in the text. Soon after his father's death his brothers had fallen out about the partition of the family estates, and matters went so far
1 1.

Pico's conduct in this matter

that

Galeotto surprised Antonio Maria and incarcerated him in the citadel of Mirandola, while he
in

1473

made

appa Antonio Maria rently ignoring altogether. remained a close prisoner in Mirandola for about two years, at the close of which he was released in defe
Pico's
title

himself master of the

entire inheritance,

rence to the intercessions, or perhaps menaces, of his He friends, fled to Rome, and appealed to the Pope.
returned in 1483 with a small army furnished by the Duke of Calabria, possessed himself of Concordia, and negoti
ated a treaty of partition with his brother. The treaty Pico had was, however, by no means strictly observed.

taken no part in the quarrel, and was probably the more ready to cede his rights to his nephew that any attempt
to vindicate

them

for himself would certainly

have excited

the determined hostility of his brothers. " ance was executed on 22 April 1491. Memorie Storiche
della Mirandola,"
i.

The convey

108

ii.

43.

Calori Cesis, " Giovanni

"

Pico."
12.

Girolamo Benivieni, author of the

83

Canzone

dell'

Amore

Celeste

Divino

"

on which Pico wrote the

commentary referred to in the Introduction p. 24. For an account of him see Mazzucchelli, " Scrittori
Italiani."
13.

St.

Jerome, author of the Vulgate version of the Bible.

:

" Scimus plerosque passage referred to is as follows dedisse eleemosynam, sed de proprio corpore nihil dedisse porrexisse egentibus manum, sed carnis voluptate supe-

The

ratos dealbasse ea

quae foris erant, et intus plenos fuisse ossibus mortuorum." " Epistola ad Eustochium Virginem,"

Opera
14.

(fol.)

i.

65. g.
P.), especially.

"

Potissimum" (G. F.
1.

So

in

"

Ro-

1,358-9, the pomegranate is de scribed as a fruyt fulle well to lyke, "Namely, to folk

maunt of the Rose/'

whanne they ben

15.
1

sike."

A
"

reminiscence of the "

De
all

6.

Passim

(G. F. P.), on

Sapientis Constantia." In fourteenth hands.

and

fifteenth century literature

means

severally, or " Rose," 1. 4,582, These "

"

"by and by" frequently one by one, as in " Romaunt of the

were
"

his wordis

by and by." The

Promptorum Parvulorum
Thence
is

sigillatim."

Soc.) translates it the transition to the sense of the

(Camden

text

not
"

difficult.

17.
1

See Introduction,

p. xxiii.

8.

Quam primum"
6.

(G. F. P.), as soon as possible.

19.

See note

20.
2E.

reminiscence of

Epode

II.

After leaving Bologna, Pico spent two years at Padua, the stronghold of scholasticism in Italy. He also studied for a time at Ferrara, under Battista Guarino, the humanist, whom in one of his letters he addresses as
In 1482 he returned to Mirandola, in prceceptor meus. the vicinity of which he built himself a little villa, which

84

he describes as

"

of the place and

pleasant enough, considering the nature district," and on which he wrote a poem

Here he entertained Aldo Manuzio, who about the same time, doubtless by Pico's recommenda tion, was appointed tutor to his nephew, Alberto Pio, and a Greek scholar, Emanuel Adramyttenus, a refugee from He now Crete, where the Moslem was triumphant.
lost.

now

began

to

correspond with Politian, and on a

of Savonarola, of Dominicans.

visit

to

Reggio made the acquaintance come thither to attend a chapter

tenus,

who had
In 1483

he went to Pavia, taking with him Emanuel Adramyt

who acted as his Greek master. There Emanuel and Pico then joined Aldo Manuzio at Carpi, died, About this time he began the study of the oriental languages, his master being one Jocana, otherwise un known. In 1484, if not earlier, he went to Florence, and made himself known to Marsilio Ficino, who had then Pico urged him just completed his translation of Plato. to crown his labours by performing the same office for Plotinus. Ficino, who was so little above the common superstitions of his time that he believed firmly in astro logy, saw in Pico's unexpected appearance at this critical
juncture an event not to be explained by natural causes, and taking his suggestion as a divine monition, forthwith
set

about the work

nor,

when
it

it

was completed, did he

omit to recount, in dedicating

to Lorenzo, the incident

which led to
sight of

Pico appears to have remained at Florence until the latter part of 1485, when we lose
its initiation.

him for a time. We obtain, however, a transient glimpse of him in a somewhat novel light from a letter from his sister-in-law, Costanza, to Fra Girolamo, of " Memorie Piacenza, dated 16 May, 1486, and printed in
Storiche della Mirandola,"
ii.

167.

From

this

it

appears

85

that he

had then recently

left

Arezzo with a Florentine

married lady, who, Costanza is careful to state, " accom panied him voluntarily/' but had been attacked by some
boors,

two

cut to pieces his attendants, wounded him in Whether places, and carried him back to Arezzo.
is

who

the outrage

imputable to the jealousy of the lady's How the affair ended husband, Costanza cannot say. does not appear, but in the following October we find
Pico at Perugia, and in November at Fratta in the Then followed the visit to Rome, the affair Ferrarese.

of the Theses, and the journey to France, where he was presented to Charles VIII. After his recall to Italy he
resided either at Fiesole or Florence until the
1491,

summer
at rest

of

when he accompanied
to

Politian to Venice.

They
the
of

returned

Florence in time to be

present

deathbed
his
life

of

Lorenzo
spent

(8

Ap.

1492).

The

Pico

partly at

Ferrara and partly at

Florence.

reposes and afforded his letters the evidence by mainly upon those of Aldo Manuzio, Politian, and Ficino. Many of
these, however, are undated,
in

The foregoing brief record of Pico's wanderings

and

all

are singularly poor

Cesis,
;

personal Pico della Mirandola,"

detail.

See

also Calori

"

Giovanni

"

Memoirs of Angelus "Savonarola," Eng. tr. 1889,

22.
"

1872 Parr Greswell, and Villari's Politianus," &c.

ed.,
;

2nd

ii.

74.

Insidiosissima correptus est febre"(G. " Axes" is of course merely access.

23.

F. P.),

See Note
"
Cseli

2.

24.

reginam ad se nocte adventasse miro

fra-

grantem odore, membraque omnia febre ilia contiisa con" " Brosed z= bruised tractaque refovisse" (G. F. P.). " " Frushed appears to be derived from the (" contusa ").
86

French

froisser,
;

which

may mean
"

either to bruise or to
"

rumple whence also probably froyse used locally for " a pancake. See " Promptorium Parvulorum (Camden
Soc.) Froyse.
25.
26.

See note

2.

Charles VIII., to

whom

Pico had recently been

little is

presented.
27.

See note
with
tr.

21.

Girolamo Savonarola.

For what
21,

known

of

his relations
Villari,

Pico see note

and

his life

by

Eng.
"

(1889).
divinis beneficiis

male gratus, vel ab sensibus vocatus, detractabat labores (delicatae quippe tem28.

Verum

vel arbitratus eius opera religionem peraturae fuerat) ad differebat tempus hoc tamen non ut verum indigere, " sed ut a me conjectatum et praesumptum dixerim
;
:

But unmindful of God's favours to him, or (G. F. P.). led away by the senses, he shrank from the labours (he

was of a delicate constitution) or thinking that religion had need of his services he yet deferred them for a time not, however, that I state this as truth, but only as what
;
:

conjecture or presume to be so.

"

29.

diaboli laqueis

"
(P.),

from the snares of the

devil.
dius,

So in Holinshed, History of Scotland," Etho" " of read nets and grens for snaring H. we B., 194
"

"

hares.

Spiritus qui interpellat pro nobis, turn ipsa necessitas singulis horis quod petas a Deo tuo suggeret et sacra lectio, quam ut omissis jam fabulis
30.
:

Suggeret

tibi

cum

nugisque poetarum semper habeas in manibus etiam atque etiam rogo" (P.). It shall be taught thee both by the which intercedes for us and by thine own needs Spirit
every hour what thou shouldest ask of thy

God and
;

also

by the reading of the holy

scriptures, which, laying

now

aside the frivolous fables of the poets, thee to have ever in thy hands.
31.

earnestly entreat

dated from Ferrara, 15 May, 1492, i.e. shortly after the death of Lorenzo. 32. fragment of the lost Neoptolemus of Ennius
letter is

The

"

Philosophari est mihi necesse, at paucis,

ea,

nam omnino

haut placet;

Degustandum ex

non

in earn ingurgitandum censeo."

Ribbeck,
Dispt."
ii.

"

Frag.
i.
I.
i.

Lat.

Reliq."

i.

53

cf.

Cic.

"

Tusc.

33. Epist
"

adfin:
:

Ad summam sapiens uno minor est Jove, dives, Liber, honoratus, pulcher, rex denique regurn ;
Praecipue sanus, nisi

cum

pituita molesta est."

" 34.
less in

Uti mannus"

(P.), like

a draught-horse.

Doubt
;

More's edition the word was spelt manus

hence
"

the curious mistranslation. " Perusice xv. Octo Mcccclxxxe/z. 35.

(P.).
It is

anno

gratise

not easy to account for the double error into which More has here fallen.

Mentientes propter eum disadvantage) because of him.

36. 37.

"

"
(P.),

lying

(i.e.

to our

Ps. xxv. 1-5 in the authorized

it

and revised versions.

levavi
:

The

Vulgate, where
:

appears as Ps. xxiv., has a slightly

different rendering

"Ad Te Domine
Te
:

animam

meam

Deus meus

in

confido,

non erubescam

Neque

irrideant

me inimici mei
es

non confundentur.
quia
in

etenim universi,qui sustineantTe, Dirige me in veritate tua, et doce me,

et

Tu

Deus Salvator meus,

is

Te
:

sustinui tota die."

38. Ps. xvi. in the authorized

the Vulgate, which

and revised versions, xv. " Conserva me as follows

Te.
Dixi

Domine, quoniam speravi

in

Domino

Deus

88

meus

es Tu,

qui stint in

quoniam bonorum meorum non eges. Sanctis terra ejus mirificavit omnes voluntates meas
:

in eis. Multiplicatae sunt infirmitates eorum postea acceleraverunt. Non congregabo conventicula eorum de

sanguinibus

nee

memor

ero

nominum eorum per

mihi.

labia

mea.

Dominus pars

hereditatis meae, et calicis mei.

Tu

es qui restitues hereditatem

meam

Funes cecide-

runt mihi in praeclaris

est mihi.
:

etenim hereditas

mea

praeclara

Benedicam Dominum, qui tribuit mihi intellectum insuper et usque ad noctem increpuerunt me renes mei. Providebam Dominum in conspectu meo

semper

quoniam a

dextris

est

mihi ne commovear.

Propter hoc laetatum est cor meum, et exultavit lingua

mea

insuper et caro

mea

requiescet in spe.
:

Quoniam

non derelinques animam meam in inferno nee dabis sanctum tuum videre corruptionem. Notas mihi fecisti
vias
tiones in
"

adimplebis me laetitia cum vultu tuo delectadextera tua usque in fin em." " " " 39. By-and-by is here evidently forthwith, and mevitae,
:

dyatly
40.

These

immediately. rules, of which More's verses are rather a

paraphrase than a translation, were written by Pico in

prose,

and were translated

"

Elyot, author of the

prose by Sir Thomas Boke of the Governour," as fol

into

lows

"THE RULES OF A CHRISTIAN LYFE MADE BY JOHAN PICUS THE ELDER ERLE OF MIRANDULA.
"

Firft

if

to

man
flefhe,

or

woman

feme harde or paynefull,

agaynfte the

way of vertue dothe bycaufe we mufte nedes fyghte

the

the divell, and the worlde, lette

hym

89

or her calle to remembraunce, that what fo ever lyfe they wyll chofe accordynge to the worlde, many adverfities,

incommodities,
fuffred. "

moche hevynes and labour

are to

be

Moreover lette them have in remembraunce, that in welth and worldly poffeffions is moche and longe conten tion, laborioufe alfo, and ther with unfrutefulle, wherin travayle is the conclufyon or ende of labour, and fynally
payne everlaftynge, if thofe thynges be not well ordered and charitably difpofed.
alfo, that it is very folifhnes to thinke to heven unto come by any other meane than by the fayde batayle, confidering that our hed and mayfler Chrifte did

"

Remembre

not afcende unto heven but by his paffion And the fervaunte oughte not to be in better aftate or condicion than
:

his mayfter or foverayne.

Furthermore confyder, that this bataile ought not to be grudged at, but to be defired and wifhed for, all though thereof no price or rewarde mought enfue or happen, but
onely that therby we mought be conformed or joyned to Chrifte our God and mayfler. Wherefore as often as in

"

any temptacion thou dooeft withftande any of the fences or wittes, thinke unto what part of Chriftes
refiftinge

paffion thou mayfte applye thy felfe or

make thy

felfe

lyke

As

refiftinge glotony, whiles

:

thou doeft punyfhe

gall of a beafte,

thy
his

taft

or appetite

remembre

that Chrifte receyved in

drynke ayfelle myxte with the

drinke mofte unfavery and loathfome. Whan thou withdrawefte thy hande from unlefull takinge or kepinge of

any thinge, whiche

the croffe.

liketh

Chriftes handis as they

were

thyne appetite: remembre faft nayled unto the tree of

pryde, thinke on him, who thy fake received the forme

being very

And refilling of God almighty, for

90

of a fubje6le, and humbled hym felfe unto the moofte vile and reproachefull deathe of the croffe.
"

And whan

that

He

thou art tempted with wrathe remembre whiche was God, and of all men the moil jufte
:

whan He behelde hym felfe mocked, fpit and on, fcourged, punifhed with alle difpites and rebukes, and fette on the croffe amonge errant theves, as if He
or rightwyfe,

Hym Selfe were afalfe

harlot,

never token of indignacion fuffering al thinges with wonderful pacience, aunfwered al men moft gentilly. In this wife if thou perufe al

He notwithftanding fhewed or that He were greved, but

thinges one after an other, thou mayft finde, that there is no paffion or trouble, that fhall not make the in fome
parte conformable or like unto Chrifte.

Alfo putte not thy truile in mannes helpe, but in the onelye vertue of Chrifte Jefu, whiche fayde Trufte well,
:

"

for

have vaynquifhid the worlde.

And

in

an other

place

He

thereof.

prince of this worlde is cafte oute Wherfore let us trufte by his onelye vertue, to

fayde

The

vaynquifhe the worlde, and to fubdue the

therfore oughte we to afke his helpe and of his faincles.
"

divell.

And

by the prayers of us

Remembre alfo, that as foone as thou haft vanquifhed one temtation, alway an other is to be loked for The divell goeth alwaye aboute and feketh for hym whome he
:

wolde devoure.
will ftande "

gently and be ever

I

Wherfore we ought to ferve dylyin feare, and to fay with the prophete
:

alwaye at

my

defence.

Take heed more

over, that not onelye thou be not

vaynquifhed of the dyvel, that temptith the, but alfo that thou vanquifhe and overcome him. And that is not onlye

whan thou

doefte no fyn, but alfo whan of that thinge wherin he tempted the, thou takeft occafion for to do good.

As

if

he

offrith to

the fome good acte to be done to the

intent

vayneglory furth with thou thinkinge it not to be thy deede or warke, but the benefitte or rewarde of God, humble thou thy
:

that therby

thou

may fie

fall

into

felfe,

and judge the to be unkynde unto God in respecte of his manyfolde benefytes. " As often as thou doeft fyghte, fyght as in hope to vanto have atte the lafte perpetualle peace. For quifhe,

&

that paradventure God of his abundante grace fhal gyve unto the, and the divell beynge confufid of thy victory,

retorne no more agayne. But yet whan thou hafle vaynquifhid, beare thy felfe fo as if thou fholdeft fighte agayne
fhall

fhortly.

Thus alway
:

in battayle

thou mufte thinke on

victory

and

after victory

thou muft prepare the to bataile

thy
felfe wil

immediately. " All though thou

flee

feleft
all

notwethstandynge

occafyons to fynne.

armed and redy, yet For as the

wife

man
all

faith

"In

loveth perylle mail therein peryfhe. temptations refyile the begynnynge, and beate
:

who

the children of Babilon againe the Stone, which Stone is Chrifte, and the chyldren be yvell thoughtes and imagi

longe contynuinge of fynne, feldome warketh medycyne or remedy.

nations.
in

For

that althoughe in the fayde conflicte of the temptation battayle feemeth to be verye daungeroufe yet confyder howe moche fweter it is to vanquifhe temp tation, than to folowe finne, wherto me inclyneth the,

"

Remembre,

wherof the ende

is

repentance.

And herein many be foule

deceyved, whiche compare not the fwetneffe of victory to

the fwetneffe of fynne, but onely compareth battayle to pleafure. Not withflandyng a man or woman, whiche hathe a

thoufande times knowen what

it is

to

gyve place to tempta

tion, fhoulde ones affaye, what it

is

to vanquifhe temptation.

92

"If thou be tempted, thynke thou not therfore that God hathe forfaken the, or that he fetteth but lyttell by
the, or that

thou art not in the fight of

God good

or per-

fecle

but remembre, that after Sayncte

feene God, as

He

was

in his divinitie,

Paule hadde and fuche fecrete

mifteryes as be not lefull for any man to fpeake or reherce, he for all that fuffred temptation of the flefhe, wherwith

God

fuffred

hym

to

be tempted,

left

he fhoulde be

Wherin a man ought to confider that Saynt Paule, which was the pure veffell of election, and rapte in to the thyrde heven, was not withftandynge
affaulted with pryde.
in perylle to
felfe.

be proude of his vertues, as he faith of hym Wherfore above al temptations manne or woman oughte to arme theym moofte ftronglye agaynfte the

temptation of pryde, fens pryde is the rote of all myfchyfe, agaynfte the whiche the onelye remedye is to thynke alway that God humbled hym felfe for us unto the croffe.

And more
wyl or

over that deth hath fo humbled us whether we

no, that our

bodyes

fhal

be the meate of wormes

lothefome and venymoufe."

potatum et aceto" (P.). For " Woo't Shakespeare, Hamlet, v. i. 1. 264, eysell " Potions of eisel drink up eisel?" and Sonnet, cxi. 1. 10,
41.

"

Recordare ilium
cf.

felle

"

"

'gainst

42.

"

my strong infection." Wood " or wode in

the sense of

mad

is

not
"

uncommon in our older writers. Midsummer Night's Dream," ii.

"

So Demetrius
i, 1.

in

192,
this

And

here
I

am

I,

and wode within

wood,

Because
"

cannot find

my

Hermia."

would seem to be a corruption of prest, " put thyself in preace" meanready, used substantially,
43.

Preace

"

93

ing

See Skeat, thyself ready. Etymological art. Press. of the English Language," Dictionary " 44. Cf. Ps. cxxxvii. 8, 9 daughter of Babylon,

make

"

be destroyed happy thee as thou hast served us,

art to
;

who

shall

he be, that rewardeth

shall

Happy

he

be, that

taketh and dasheth thy

ones against the stones." 45. Here More speaks mpropria persona, with perhaps More." There is nothing a double entendre in the "
little

We
cf.

in Pico

corresponding to the verses

"

which
"

follow.
i.

46.

For
"

lynne," cease,

Spenser,

Faery Queen,"

canto

v. 35.

And
"

Against an

Sisiphus an huge round stone did reele hill, ne might from labour Hn."

"

47.

Not

is

for ne wot,

i.e.

know
:

not.

So Chaucer

concludes the description of the Merchant in the Prologue " to the Canterbury Tales," 1. 286
**

But soth

to sayn I n'ot

how men him

"

call."

48.

The

stanzas

except the last ing sentence

:

on the "Propertees" are original two, which are a paraphrase of the follow

Solemns autem ad hoc induci praecipue ex tribus Prima est quando servitium ipsum per se est causis.
appetibile
:

"

secunda quando
:

ille

cui servimus

est in se

valde bonus et amabilis

illi

sicut

solemus dicere, servimus

ille

propter suas virtutes. Tertia est quando

tibi beneficia contulit.

prius

quam

inciperes multa
in

Et

haec tria sunt

Deo
sit

non

quia pro servitio ejus nihil naviter accipitur quod et quoad animam et quoad corpus nobis bonum
:
:

non est aliud quam tendere ad eum hoc Similiter ipse est optimus et est ad summum bonum. pulcherrimus et sapientissimus et habet omnes condiquia servire
ei
:
:

tiones quae solent nos

movere ad amandum aliquem

et in nos contulit

et

serviendum

ei gratis

summa

beneficia

94

cum nos

et ex nihilo creaverit et per

sanguinem

Filii

ab

inferno redemerit." (P.) There are, moreover, three prin cipal considerations by which we are accustomed to be

impelled to this service.

itself is desirable

for its

The first is that the service own sake. The second arises
is

when he whom we serve

in himself

very good and

say

amiable, and we serve him, as we are The ing, on account of his virtues.

in the habit of
third,

when

before

the

commencement of your

service he
favours.

has conferred on you

many

whom you And these

serve
three

considerations coexist in the case of God, for nothing whatever is accepted by way of His service which is not
for our
is

good both of
Likewise

soul

and of body

for to serve
i.e.

Him

nothing else but to seek after

Him
all

after the chief

good.
ties

He

Himself is of
:

most lovely and wisest which are wont to move us to love and serve any one without reward and has conferred on us the greatest
:

beings the best, and and has in Himself all the proper

favours, since
"

has both created us from nothing, and redeemed us from hell by the blood of His Son."
48. Cf.

He

Promptorium Parvulorum"
or

(Camd.

Soc.).

"

Prollynge, sekynge. investigatio, scrutinum :" and Chaucer, " Canterbury Tales," 1. 16880. " Though ye prolle ay, ye shal it never find."
50.
51.
"

Perscrutatio,

Cf. note 47.

"Nyrche" has been

emendation for
as
"

substituted

by way of con
is

jectural

ze/yrche,"

which

unintelligible*

Nyrche" by the context

due
in

nourish gives the sort of sense required and the eccentric spelling may be merely
r

to the roughness with which the More's time.

was pronounced
See

52. "Peace,"

cup: from the low Latin, pecia.

Soc.)

"Promptorium Parvulorum" (Camden

/to; and

Du

Cange, Pecia.
95

CHISWICK PRESS: c. WHITTINGHAM AND TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE.

co.,

Pico dslla Mirandola, G.

His life, by his

.

B 785 .P54 A5

nephew.